Welcome to this year's first brood of Karner blue butterflies!

On Memorial Day Weekend, the first Karner blue butterflies of the year were observed at Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park.  The wild blue lupine is also in bloom, covering the meadows in a carpet of lavender flowers.  There are several trails in the Preserve & Park where you can observe the flowers and the small blue butterflies. The most accessible are at Camp Saratoga where the trail leaves from parking lot #1 on Scout Road.  The other trails are Old Gick Farm and Fox which are accessed from parking areas off of Route 50, just north of King Road. 

The next few weeks will be ideal for seeing many of the newly emerged butterflies as they search for nectar and mates in the open pine/oak savannah that is their habitat in the Saratoga Sandplains. 

The endangered Karner blue butterflies spend the winter as an egg, hatch into their larval stage to feed on the wild blue lupine, and have just now emerged from their chrysalises. This first brood of adult butterflies will mate and lay eggs on the wild blue lupine.  Those eggs will hatch and form the second brood, with those butterflies appearing usually in early July. 

For more information please contact the Park Office at 518-450-0321 or email info@wiltonpreserve.org.  For up to date program trail and program information, visit the website at www.wiltonpreserve.org.  The Wilton Wildlife Preserve & Park is a non-profit organization that conserves ecological systems and natural settings while providing opportunities for environmental education and outdoor recreation.