On May 26 Dr. Jacob Cooper (assistant biology professor at University of Nebraska at Kearney) photographed a skipper along a wooded section the Dannebrog Bike-Hike trail adjacent to Oak Creek just west of Dannebrog in Howard County. After posting it to iNaturalist it was determined to be a male Zabulon Skipper – an identification I concur with (carefully examine the dorsal wingtip differences of the between Zabulon and Hobomok Skippers). This skipper is most often found in southeastern Nebraska, becoming increasingly rare to the north and west. It is most often found associated with woodland margins and is double brooded, with flights peaking in May and August, So this was a great find.
In an interesting sidebar Jonathan Nikkila and myself traveled to Dannebrog on Saturday, arriving late in the morning hoping to possibly find a late flying Zabulon for Jonathan’s photo gallery. The previous afternoon/evening Howard County had received in excess of 4-5 inches of rain. Oak Creek, which runs adjacent to the bike-hike trail and then through Dannebrog, drains roughly 50 square miles to the west. When we arrived at the site in late morning we took the trail through the oak woodland but found our way blocked by standing water near the end of the trail. So we retraced our steps only to find the previously dry trail blocked by water nearly a foot deep (and still rising). So we waded across the “flooded” section of trail, got back to our vehicle and made our way east through Dannebrog on Hwy 58 to survey wetlands to the east. About two hours later we got an alert on our phones that Hwy 58 was closed in Dannebrog as Oak Creek had continued to rise, overflowed its banks and flooded their downtown. Fortunately our timing (luck) that day had been good and we avoided being stranded or being put in harm’s way. But a lesson learned was to be aware of weather events upstream, even if they happened the previous day.