March 2014 Sightings

The Gulf Fritillaries were nectaring on Wolfberry (Lycium torreyi, Solanaceae) in full bloom. One was fresh and bright, the other worn with a large beak mark on one hind wing. After nectaring, they flew around each other as if courting. The Cabbage Whites were investigating London rocket (Sysimbrium irio, Brassicaceae.)

63-64F Pipevine swallowtail male on sorrel.
Typical form male cabbage white on Salvia.
Painted lady early - migrants typically arrive on Mar 23. This one (fresh) probably emerged here.
Spring azure = echo blue

Sunny. Temp. 68-78F. Four hours of observation along main and side roads. Laurel and Dusty Rhodes (photos). Flowers in bloom: Pennyroyal, Blueberry, Fleabane, Lyonia, Pickerel Weed.

Sighting around 6000ft — trail still covered in snow - 44degrees

Sunny, 78F.

65F

70 degrees, late afternoon, unfertilized/pesticide free natural lawn, I have a variety of butterfly plants in the yard.

The Pearly Marble is about 5 weeks earlier than last year.

63-68F

female large marble on fiddleneck

Around noon on Sunday, March 9. Warm, sunny, still air. The butterflies were nectaring on dandelions. The maps in BtBTW shows 5 definite Duskywing species plus 2 marginal species here. I did see another unidentified Duskywing. The only one likely in town is Funereal, but the one I saw lacked a white fringe. It showed a chain-link pattern on the fw like the Sleepy.

Mourning Cloak, Hoary Comma both overwintering adults.
No blossoms.

Dennis Holmes, Ken Wilson, Dave Bartholomew, and I met at the summit area of San Bruno Mountain to photograph the endangered San Bruno elfin, which is a subspecies of Moss’s Elfin. This butterfly was federally listed as endangered in 1976. Although the day started out as foggy and cold, the afternoon warmed up and we started seeing elfins.

female Cabbage White - note light apical patch typical of winter form, doubled lower spot, and buffy color.

same female Cabbage White underside: uppermost spot is actually on the hind wing; next the top spot, and lowermost, the doubled lower spot.

About three hours 1 pm - 4 pm in most sunny weather, light breeze, temperature in the mid-upper 60’s. Most butterflies were seen along the lower Double Oak Road trail.

Sunny, windy, 81 degrees

Windy, sunny, 81 degrees

Unusually small Variegated Fritillaries

Seen today, March 18, 2014. Wolfberry flowers are fading and falling off, but still attractive to Gulf Fritillaries. Three of them, all fresh, were nectaring today.

A full day in pleasant temps - 66°-82° though not a lot of flowers yet.

Temp. 68-75F. Field time: 3 1/2 hrs. Karen Finch (photo) and Laurel Rhodes. Bidens and Tropical Sage were key nectar sources.

Quite worn

With Jane Lampkin
The fresh Buckeye was sunning and stunning in late afternoon light

Photo is from February but two specimens continue to stay in the territory of my front yard and are seen every afternoon in the same place sunning themselves as of March 20.

It was on the ground on an Oak leaf.

In sunny glades, air temp. hovering at about 50 F.

California Sister on buckeye.

All seen in afternoon sun, temp. above 60 F. - E. Comma in good condition.

My wife and I visited Anza-Borrego Desrt State Park and butterflied Yaqui Well and Plum Canyon. Temperatures were a nice 71 degrees when we finished up.
The Juniper Hairstreak were of the ‘Loki’ type.

67-72F
Propertius Duskywing
California Sister on buckeye
Eastern Tailed Blue female

My wife and I worked Yaqui Well and Plum Canyon for our second straight day. Temps warmed up a bit to 72 degrees.

Juniper Hairstreaks were of the ‘Loki’ type. The Arizona Powdered Skipper is considered unusual for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park and is a ‘lifer’ for me.

61-63F

This was our final day in Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. We started out butterflying at Culp Valley campground/trailhead and found a Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak which is unusual for Anza-Borrego Desert State Park. Later in the day, we found another one in Plum Canyon. That makes two and is a pretty noteworthy sighting and a ‘lifer’ !

I have seen more Gulf Fritillaries in March 2014 than in my previous 32 years of butterfly watching in southern NM. Where are they all coming from? There is one species of native passion flower here, which is a small, not common plant that grows in the mountains. Some people grow cultivated passion flowers in their urban gardens, and some of my previous sightings were near cultivated passion flowers, but I’d never seen more than one Gulf Fritillary in one year before. The garden owner says he is still seeing Gulf Fritillaries.

60-63F

male Western Tailed-Blue - but no tails!

62-67F Looked for Edith’s Checkerspot - none seen.]

Brown Elfin

male Propertius Duskywing on blue dick

With Jane Lampkin
Good number of species for a short time in a small area.

With Jane Lampkin

perfect weather and a beautiful sunny afternoon in central Houston.

56 species; images are from March 27 when 114 Head Start kids visited the NBC. You can see the profusion of wildflowers blooming in the Geoffrey McAllen Memorial Texas Grassland and Wildflower Refugium that surrounds the Visitors Pavilion. The other photo is along the Hackberry Trail. A Monarch was laying eggs on a Tropical Milkweed.