August 2015 Sightings

10:20-12:20 Central Loop Trail. Overcast, then rain towards the end, overall very poor weather. Confused Cloudywing new species for Preserve.

Short hike before rain; cloudy and windy, but some activity

Observed in butterfly garden between 3:30 p.m. and 7:00 p.m.

We saw this beautiful giant swallowtail in our small garden outside our kitchen window. We were so excited!

Observed between the hours of 11:00 a.m. and 1:30 p.m.

10:15 - 11:45 am. Wiles Branch is a small local community park with ball field, community vegetable gardens, and creek frontage with plenty of “weeds”. One of the Tawny Emperors enjoyed my hat so much, it stayed with me for over 20 minutes.

The Swallowtail would fly a circuit around the Butterfly Garden. The Cabbage Whites spend the day in the garden, enjoying the watering station (with marbles), and sleep in the garden at night.

Summary of sightings from the day-long South Jersey Butterfly Blog group field trip.

Record count of Meadow Frits found at fragile, geographically limited colony and continued success of Bronze Copper colony being monitored.

Mostly sunny,afternoon thunderstorm 80’s

11:30-12:30 FL (127)

Late afternoon with mostly sunny skies. FL (128).

9:30-10:30 FL (124)

highlight of the day, 335pm on the wooded trail by the corner of the meadow parking area, about 10 minutes walk into the woods from the trailhead (Steve Walter photo). The abundance of large underwing moths in the wooded areas of the preserve was also noteworthy.

Butterflies observed along roadsides for approximately 2 miles up Carr Canyon Road.

Butterflies observed on Hamburg Trail and at the Visitor Center’s butterfly garden.

Finally, decent numbers of grass skippers. Tawny-edge numbers were stunning, and with the abundance of nectar sources now, the shortage of Sachems is that much more of a surprise.

9-11:15 AM

most prominent leps were actually large underwing moths, almost each “tap” on a wooden surface (live and dead trees, and the two trellises) scattered anywhere from 1 to over a dozen underwings.

First Monarch I’ve seen this summer, female. She was hanging around my milkweed plants, hopefully laying eggs before she went to my zinnias.

Dark, overcast skies kept leps from flying. Stayed for just over an hour when a light rain forced us out. FL (129)

Two-hour walk, 4–6 p.m.
Mostly sunny, hot.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails included two black-form females.

Surprised by lack of Vanessa species.

Also saw Three-spotted Fillip moth, Heterophleps triguttaria.

Dragonflies, notably the Common Whitetail, easily outnumbered butterflies!

UnID’d Frits

I have spotted three or four of these in my yard from 3 August thru 28 September 2015.

Butterflies were observed within a dry creekbed along Harshaw Road

Includes roadsides and campgrounds along Carr Canyon Road.

Periodic Survey
9 am - 10:15; 72-82 Sun with clouds.
First Zabulons of second brood

Sunny, hot, breezy.

80, 79F
western tiger
monarch on Asclepias fasciculata

4 of the Tigers were dark form.

Snouts & Tawny Emperor in fine, large old hackberry grove at Conference House park - the snouts were hard to count as most were up in the tall canopy, & there were likely more than the number listed; Checkered White at Miller Field, a known locality; many other sites visited; although good diversity, numbers not that high for these often-productive areas. Horace’s Duskywing is expected in several of the areas visited. Late-summer flowers just barely starting. Weather mostly sunny & very warm, strong southerly breeze. No photos this trip as camera battery died & no spare (d’uh!)

5:00 - 5:45 PM.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Areas visited included roadsides along Pinery Canyon Road, Barfoot and Rustler Parks.

Only one Monarch that is hanging around the milkweed, hopefully laying eggs. She has been around for a couple of days now.

Large amounts of Joe Pye weed attracted the many Swallowtails. The Tigers, Frits and Admirals all appeared very fresh.

3 to 4 p.m.
80 degress, sunny

Three of the Tigers were dark form. All Tigers were present at the same time.

Butterflies observed at flowers around the Lodge and around the hummingbird feeding stations.

FOS Buckeye. Least Skipper has been AWOL so nice to find one.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Butterfly bush

Three of the 16 Tigers were dark form.

Rained all day;until time to go to work at 3pm.

Monk is new yard LEP

Rain, finally! Cloudy most of the day. Three of the Tigers were dark form.

Lunchtime walk near downtown

Snout seen ovipositing on Hackberry.

This was a scouting trip for the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association field trip on Saturday that we advertise as seeing southern immigrant butterflies. NO southern immigrants were seen today! Very dry conditions.
One of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female.

Observed in butterfly garden. Overcast and only around 70 degrees kept activity down.

Rained most of yesterday which made for a good sighting morning.

The monarch was the first of the year for me.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Weekly survey with Alan Wells.
With Nancy Slowik
Sun with some clouds 69-79
Image shows ectoparasites on head of Northern Broken-Dash

Best surprises of the day were a pair of coupled Monarchs near an isolated patch of Milkweed, and a Margined White was totally unexpected for this time of year.

Nectaring on swamp milkweed

By 10:30 the skies opened up and the rains came…

Three-spotted Skipper was unusual this far north in Florida.

Only 2 of the Tigers were dark form, all of the Tigers were present at the same time.

New one for me and my garden.

noon to 5 pm in low to mid-80s with partly to mostly sunny skies. Record number of species and individuals!

Observations made between 9:30 a.m. & 4:30 p.m. Most productive nectar sources were Dogbane in the field, Eupatorium (Joe-Pye weed)in the butterfly garden.Also in bloom: NY Ironweed. Rattlesnake master (Eryrigium yuccifolium) attracted as many as 8 Gray Hairstreaks at one time.

Observations made between 4:50 p.m. & 5:45 p.m. This location does not permit hiking. Observations made primarily by car. A nice group of puddling butterflies at a drain pipe. Colias sp., Pearl Crescent, ETB, Horaces, and C.Checkered Skipper were seen puddling.

Sites visited included the Miller Canyon Trail and also roadsides along Miller Canyon Road.

Warm (82 deg) but it got very cloudy and that killed all skipper activity

10:30 am to 1:00 pm, reliable site for red banded hairstreaks- perched on sumac, or nectaring, along the main trail

two of the sulphurs were the ‘alba’ form.

80F

The monarch entertained me for about a minute as it flew about my yard.

All time record for Tiger Swallowtails at this location all present at the same time. A total of 27 Tigers - 21 yellow and 6 dark form females. Almost all were on Joe Pye and Agastache. Each evening they leave one at a time and fly up into the trees and each morning they drift down again to start the new day. They come early and stay late.

74 degrees with light winds. One unidentified grass skipper not included in count.

Sunny early, but rain starting around noon. High in the low 60s. No Hoary or Satyr Commas seen, but I believe I saw the silvius or “chocolate” morph of the Green Comma (see photo).

A little arroyo just downhill from the parking lot has a small patch of Carlowrightii linearifolia (Acanthaceae). It sometimes is a good place to see Tiny Checkerspots. On Aug. 10, we saw a small flock of Tinys with a few darker butterflies. My friend got good pictures of the undersides of both forms, which we compared lated with the pictures in BTBTW. The darker butterflies were indeed Texola elada. We also saw 2 Roadside Skippers of unidentifiable species, and a very large white butterfly flying fast in a straight line about 10 feet over our heads. My friend saw a yellow patch.

Mix of clouds and sun, light wind. Although I began searching for Purplish Fritillaries at 10:30 am, none were seen until around 2:00 pm when temperatures reached the mid 60s. Nectaring on goldenrod observed. These butterflies like to mineralize on an unpaved section of the Mt. Washington Auto Route where they are vulnerable to being hit by vehicles. I saw this happen on a previous visit.

Observed in butterfly garden.

76F, 76F

78F

Sites visited included portions of the Miller Canyon, Clark Spring and John Copper Trails.

Areas visited included roadsides and dry creekbeds along the lower elevations of the Memorial.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Butterfly bush

7 of the Tigers were dark form today.

Sunny summer;but it was a slow start;very few sightings before 10am.

High in the mid 70s, windy, mix of clouds and sun early, heavy rain beginning around 2:00 pm. Dorcas Coppers (the Maine/New Brunswick subspecies aka Clayton’s Copper) seen within a stand of shrubby cinquefoil about 0.1 acre in size. The number seen estimated at 30. Males worn to very worn; many females also quite worn, but others fresh, suggesting emergence in two well-defined groups. Dorsal photos show representative worn and fresh females.

There were many puddles. It had rained earlier.

Area visited included nature trails nears where the Sonoita Creek enters Patagonia Lake.

This is a former golf course that the township has made into an open space preserve. There is much milkweed, both common and swamp varieties. I counted 12 monarchs during a 1 1/2 hour walk through the area.
Also submitting an Eastern-tailed blue, female, because I don’t often see them with wings open.

(Pictured) Mangrove Skipper feeding on lantana

First sighting of a Great Purple Hairstreak in our garden - ever!!! Yes we have a tall oak on the edge of the garden and yes it has mistletoe but still didn’t think one would appear. Today was the big day. Also, our first sighting of a Gulf Fritillary mating pair in our Pineapple Sage plant.

Observed in butterfly garden.

I also got a video of it!

First of the year in my garden. I was excited to see it, last year my first was on August 17th. I’m glad they seem to be expanding their range and are almost reliable each year now.

Sunny Summer

Observed in butterfly garden.

A large pond surrounded by an Apple orchard and grasses with red and white clovers.

Red-banded Hairstreaks becoming more regular in New York City recently; Broad-winged Skippers out in good numbers here; even 1 Monarch also good to see - not that common in this park, in summer.
Good year for Great Spangled Fritillary in the area, not very expected in this park. Warm, sunny, light west wind, very low humidity (uncommonly low for this area) Lots of Eupatorium in bloom, a few other native flowers out, as well as non-natives. Butterflies looked fresh.

Silver Spotted Skippers have gone from 30-40 per day (at the same time) down to nil.

Went up past Catherine’s Pass to Sunset Pass and then southeast on the Great Western for about a mile before heading back.

High ridge trail with sandy substrate and limestone outcrops. Tons of scrub-oak and Edwards’ Hairstreaks in June-July.

Butterfly bush

Observed in butterfly garden.

Weekly survey with Nancy Slowik. Clear, light breeze, 69-82 F.

Ran into Mike Reese in the butterfly garden; Mike joined us in the garden and wooded path — devil’s walking stick in bloom attracting a lot of red-spotted purples, summer azures, snouts, and red-banded hairstreaks.

3:20-4:15 pm. Driving tour—observations made from car as no hiking permitted. Joe Pye Weed, NY Ironweed, Swamp Loosestrife, & Swamp Milkweed in bloom.

For the first time in my 50 years of butterfly enthusiasm, I observed a Giant Swallowtail in NJ. It flew past my front yard, and eventually flew over the roof.

Second Monarch of the summer I’ve seen. So awesome to watch it glide along.

My first ever Horace’s Duskywing in Montclair.

10:00-12:30. Sunny and a beautiful day to be out butterflying.

At the Visitor’s Center I found both a Mangrove Skipper (my first for the park) and a Monk Skipper diving deep into yellow allamanda flowers.

All seen in the outside patio garden on the Buddleias. A Snowberry Clearwing moth was joining in on the fun too.

The Gulf Fritillary pictured was hanging from its chrysalis from the eave of our house about 15 feet from our passion vine. 15 minutes after the photo was taken, it beat its wings 3 times, took off, and flew laps around the garden in bright sunshine. The Red Spotted Purple looked new and fell from a shrub while I was watering. It sat on my finger for 20 minutes before feeding on a hydrangea the rest of the afternoon. Last and definitely least, the Least Skipper was among the herbs on oregano. First Least found at this location this year (species #41 this season).

Observed in butterfly garden.

08-15-15 Swallowtail on petunias and small pink flowers. I had never seen one before

77F, 79F

Diodia and Lachnanthes were the flowers with the nectar power to attract 34 species yesterday and today,totaling 4 1/2 hours field time between 10-12 and 10-12:30.
Mid to high 80’s, Partly Cloudy, with about 60% sun,winds 0-10.

First Giant Swallowtail seen at this location for 2015.

Late summer—early fall skippers starting to appear.

4 to 5 p.m.

Butterfly watching around 8:30 ET this morning. Then around 3pm ET the temperature was around 90 with heat index to 94. A monarch visited as so did a couple kinds of skippers.

Observed in butterfly garden.

One-and-a-quarter-hour walk, 3:15–4:30 p.m. Sunny, about 94 degrees, very little wind.

Second brood of Bronze Copper.

Very hot, humid and sunny. 94 degrees. This area has gardens, large open lawns and riparian habitats.

Red-banded Hairstreak found on wall about 6:30 a.m. near Ailanthus Webworm Moth and One-spotted Variant Moth.

Wings vertically positioned gave it away.

I’m starting to conclude Hairstreaks are more likely drawn to lights overnight than most other butterflies.

First Sachem sighted here this year, species number 42 this year. Of the 21 Tigers, 7 were dark form females.

A 2-3 acre marsh impoundment. At least 30 species of wildflowers and many species of sedges and marsh grasses.