Adult butterflies depend on flower nectar for food and flowers are most abundant in open, sunlit areas. There you may find Great Spangled and Aphrodite Fritillaries, Common Wood Nymphs, Clouded and Orange Sulphurs, Pearl Crescents, Common Buckeyes, and American ladies. Open, disturbed habitat can be found along country roads, power line cuts, lake and river edges, pastures and sometimes in community parks. Winged Deer Park in Johnson City is an excellent example of a community park which provides not only soccer and softball field facilities, but also a variety of trails through birding, butterflying and flowering habitats preserved for the nature lover. When seeking butterflies, consider season, topography and host plants.
Many butterflies appear only during a brief period of the year.
The West Virginia White of eastern Tennessee is a forest dweller than flies only during April of each year because this is the time that its caterpillar host plants, toothworts, are available. Roan Mountain has a spectacular flight of Aphrodite Fritillaries in late July. This peak abundance occurs for about two weeks in July and then declines rapidly. Topography can be used to uncover some exciting butterfly concentrations. In many species, the males and females improve their chances of locating each other for mating by congregating at the tops of hills.