March 2015 Sightings

After several days of overcast skies and rain on Saturday, the weather was perfect on Sunday. 80-degress, light breeze. FL (45).

Upper 60s. Light breeze

62F

62, 60F

Also Monroe County. Main park road from entrance to Flamingo with many stops, including Long Pine Key, Eco Pond, and Rowdy Bend Trail.

63F

Open-winged Malachite photo was taken on March 4, 2015.

Note that photo shows female Martial Scrub-Hairstreak laying eggs on its host plant, Bay-Cedar (Suriana maritima).

Great fun!

64F

from 10:20 AM to 2:00 PM, 1.5 miles.

It has been more than a week since I’ve seen a Monarch, it looks like they have moved away from the coast.Today was a nice surprise the rain held off, and a strong southerly wind blew the sea fog out making for mostly sunny, warm day; temps were in the mid 70s

The path toward the old butterfly garden had nice scattered patches of Verbena which attracted 100-200 individuals of more than 13 species (some “got away”). It was idyllic! As we began walking back we were horrified to see a huge mower come through eradicating the nectar sources along the trail! We indicated to Sabal Palm exactly what we thought of this. There were 20 times as many butterflies along the trail as was in their designated “butterfly garden”.

Sunny & 68 degrees.

Sunny & 68F

The Becker’s White is a 1st for me.

Plus 2 Un-IDd Sulphers

temp in upper 60s light breeze

Mostly cloudy. About 70 degrees.

I sighted the duskywing on my blossoming apple tree in the mid afternoon.

First Western Tiger Swallowtail of the season. Seen in my yard.

63F

w/Lori. Not much blooming. FL (49).
Photos: N.Cloudywing and Spicebush & Palamades sharing a bloom.

Rain throughout day, however a brief period of break during a brief walk along the Green Jay trail had the Mexican Bluewing pop up into view.

A few patches of sun, strong southerly wind, and temp in the low 70s

was on my fondant tray that I was feeding my honeybees with.

An Eastern Comma was moving around on a snowbank. On March 9th, it was a sunny 50 degrees.

Sunny mid 70s,with southerly wind.Wild beach rosemary drew all of the attention today.

Thick sea fog made everything to soggy to move here along the coast;but only a few miles inland it was dry and cloudy. This allowed some of our locals to get out and move around.T he flower of choice is still canola inland.

Short, one-hour visit at the Mulberry Trees Area. Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak was first found at this northerly location several years ago. FL (51).

65F
Painted Ladies flying NW - migrants

very fresh -probably newly emerged

Mid 60s and breezy. Dave Bartholomew and David Rawlinson joined in. We had one unidentified Lady.

Phaon Crescents were excessively abundant. How could a scarce, small species ever find a mate, amongst all those Phaons?

N-NW winds 10-15, 70 F

First butterfly of the year.

This ties the earliest date in the year that I have ever seen a butterfly in WI. 63 degrees and sunny!

Sara Orangetips were the most I’ve seen at once.
Two-tailed Swallowtail, Pale Swallowtails, and Lorquin’s Admiral were early records for me.

71F

Mostly cloudy and 67.

We arrived in heavy overcast but it amazingly quickly cleared up! 80 degrees. We love the Streaky-Skipper!

Went about 1.3 miles before turning around. Too much snow. The south facing slopes were clear though.

An unknown Comma

70F

This little sparkler was spotted on the Karankawa Trail!

Sunny and cool;this time of the year that means highs in the 70s.Still damp from yesterdays heavy rains.

While leading St. Pete Audubon participants on a bird outing I stopped to admire a few leps. FL (54)

Short visit. Late afternoon. No mosquitoes and no Tiger Swallowtails. FL (55)

80F. The swallowtails were hard to count because they were in a frenzy.

9 days after a 4-inch snow…74 F. First butterflies of the year.

First-of-season Virginia butterflies on a sunny (0% cloud cover), warm (65-68 deg F), windy (10-20 mph) afternoon.

Two cabbage whites fluttering

No mosquitoes. Thistle was blooming, but the water level was very low. The Three-spotteds and many of the Julias were along the West Main Tram Trail. FL (60).

Broke a high record temperature in Denver at 89 degrees F. Full sun outdoors. No blossoms visible.

Sunny summer day; offshore breeze AM,onshore by noon temps in low 80s. Everything in season is in bloom.

Very dry. Nothing was blooming. Duskywings were up and down the dirt road 1/2 mile west of campground entrance. FL (63).

First butterfly of season.

Sunny and warm,temps in the lower 80s,offshore breeze AM with a switch to onshore by noon; there was a lot of movement with the warmer temps.

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This afternoon I found two Mallow Scrub-Hairstreaks. Both were nectaring on bidens and dodging attacking wasps.

Butterfly garden

Laying eggs on Noseburn (Tragia species)

11 AM till 2 PM, cloudy, 70s

Mostly sunny and upper 70s, Ft Morgan held good numbers of winter resident Monarchs in later Feb. The winter crowd is now gone.

Another nice day rain showers stayed to the north,temp. in the low 80s with southerly breezes. It was a swallowtail butterfly day; 4 different kinds were sighted today. The target of the day was Carolina Satyr; looking for the newly identified, look alike.

77F. One unidentified lady.

Forecast was for partly sunny but it was mostly overcast. Apparently if it is warm (77 degrees) that’s good enough.

Still snow on trail in the shady spots.

9 Commas — a mix of Hoary and Satyr

Last day of spring break. It had rained heavily the day before and it seemed like the butterflies were taking awhile to warm up and start flying about. My boys and I were out hiking the wash from about 10-11 AM.

My boys and I stopped for lunch at this pull-out in the Tonto National Forest and found quite a lot of hilltopping going on. Sunny, 12-2 PM.

Sunny and warm again today.The pitcher plants are starting to rebound and are putting up flower heads.

A glorious day! No wind and about 75 degrees. A six swallowtail day too!!

Walked about 0.5-1 mile to Mushroom Springs. Hoping for Crescents.

UnID’d Sulphers flying

With Dusty Rhodes (photos) and Jean McCollom. Saw 7 species in the interior on a native plant walk. Pineland Heliotrope was used by Crescents. Most butterflies were seen roadside nectaring on Horridulum thistle flowers. Laurel Wilt has arrived at the slough, a concern for butterflies using Persea as a host.

A fine afternoon at the border of winter & spring: sunny (0% clouds), 65-67 deg F, wind 5-10 mph, 03:15 - 04:50 pm EDT. Only Mourning Cloaks seen, though.

Mostly sunny and warm.

Home butterfly garden, low 70s, first tiger swallowtail this year.

I got in a field trip to the Illinois River Valley and Eight Dollar Mountain in Josephine County Oregon to photograph butterflies before the rain set in. It is supposed to rain later today and it looks like it. Temperatures started out chilly in the high 40’s and warmed up to 62 degrees and partly sunny. I didn’t see a single butterfly ‘till noon.While eating lunch at the Eight Dollar Mountain Botanic Wayside I saw a Pearly Marble so I hit the trail up towards the peak. The biggest surprise was seeing an Indra Swallowtail!

Rain early, stopped by mid morning and mostly sunny late morning; temp in upper 70s.

These were found in the Old Orchard portion of the property. 2-3 additional species got away. Great place!

Cloudy, and cool; off shore wind flow all day with temps in mid 60s.

Leps seen in an hour and a half during the late afternoon

Sunny and 90 degrees! Abundant Phaon Crescents probably masked a few other scarce species.

Most of these were seen along the tour road and particularly on the blooming verbena near the cemetery. The Carolina Satyr is the local South Texas Satyr.

Partly cloudy and temps in the low 70s southerly breeze by afternoon.

First sighting of a Sleepy Orange this year. This shows the butterfly in its dry season (winter) form.

87 degrees, sunny.

Found this one perched on a pomegranate bush in my backyard.

Ringlet was landing on grass and not feeding. Orangetips and American Lady were feeding at verbena and large stands of mustard. Sunny day with light wind and temperatures in the mid 70’s F.

Mostly sunny, southerly breeze, temps in mid 70s. The numbers of Cloudless Sulphurs have gone down over the past week, as the season gos on they will almost become completely absent as the winter residents die out and the this early brood moves on.

Two-hour afternoon walk. First E.Tiger Swallowtail of the year. FL (64).

Annual visitation in my butterfly garden of Swallowtail.

Cloudy with showers most of the afternoon, temps in mid 60s. Sightings were as the showers started and during a break in the showers.

First Spring Azure (form Violacea) of the year.

In my butterfly garden.

First warm day after a long cold winter. Temp reached 70. 1 hr 3:30-4:30 pm

Elevation from 5900-8200ft.

Saw Whites hill-topping at the peak. They didn’t land to be identified.

The Sheridan Hairstreaks (and Brown Elfin) were around 7000+ ft.

70F with David Rawlinson
6 Edith’s at Devils Pulpit, 6 at Bald Ridge

A little over an hour.

Cold for this time of year low to mid 40s this AM, it warmed to the mid 60s by the afternoon and the wind switched to southerly. Bright and sunny which made places on of the wind feel even warmer.Todays sighting were out of the wind.

45 at dawn, warmed to upper 60s by 3 PM. No luck with Yucca Giant-Skipper.

71F

I was told that this sighting was the first ever documented sighting of a Queen within the Channel Islands National Park. Queen was feeding at wild mustard. It would occasionally interact with Monarchs that were feeding at the same wild mustard flowers. Mostly sunny day with temperatures in the 70’s F. Azures also feeding at mustard flowers.

Partly to mostly cloudy,temp in the mid 60s after low 40s this AM.winds have returned to southerly.

Upper 50s at dawn, warmed to upper 70s with cloud cover by 4.
FL (75).

Thanks to Mike Rickard and Ginny for showing us the Definite Patch!

Morning showers with southerly breeze,temps started in the mid 60s.Stopped at several points along the way on the way to Mobile Bay Causeway,and found a pretty green hairstreak along the way, Hessel’s Hairsteak

Am. Snout found on the front yard of the Gregory House. It was very wary and would not allow a close approach. Dawn temps upper 40s, by 3 PM it was nearly 80, but overcast. FL (71).

Oak Woodland and chaparral habitat along Franz Valley Road just past the Napa County line at aprox 1500 ft elevation. Weather mild 75 degrees F. Sunny. No males seen today. Probably a tad early for this far North.

Many spring butterflies seen today. Weather warm and sunny. 75 degrees F. Not many California Dogface flying yet. No images to post from today. I think I am about three weeks early to see spring brood adults?

Mourning Cloak flying north up wooded stream valley

First butterflies of the year.

Undetermined anglewing sp seen flying as well.

Beach Rosemary is well past is peak,and reduced the numbers if duskwings in the area.

I walked Sycamore on Monday and saw one Blackened Bluewing. On Tuesday I walked California Gulch and saw 2 far down canyon and then another by one of the livestock pools on the road back. I spoke with another man on the way out who was looking for butterflies and he had seen one too! He was right by Pena Lake where the road turns to gravel. Something is going on there seems to be an influx this week.

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Short, three hour stay, produced no elfins. A Question Mark on the roadway was a nice surprise. FL (79).