January 2017 Sightings

Partly Cloudy
Wind. Southerly
Winds 10 - 15
Temps. mid 60s - mid 70s

New county record and one of the most northern records of this species in the U.S.

only a twenty minute stop

Partly Cloudy
Wind. Southerly
Winds. 10 - 15
Temps mid 50s. - lower 70s

Sunny
Wind southwest
Winds 10 - 15
Temps. lower 40s. - lower 60s
Strong cold front due for the weekend; low temps predicted in the mid 20s.

Partly sunny, 70 degrees.

Sunny, 72 degrees. Spotted two no ID sulphurs. Also 20 Mourning Cloak caterpillars.

14:15-16:15 CST. Sunny, warm (77-79 deg F), wind 0-10 mph. Few flowers were blooming at Zilker (not surprising), but there was a nice variety of early winter butterflies (6 species). The light was especially difficult for the Gulf Fritillary photo.

Last Friday, it was 10 degrees F in the morning, and we had snow on the ground. Just five days later, it’s 80 degrees F with butterflies emerging!

There was a nice colony of Monarchs that was occupying the forested areas of the grounds.The fear was that the 3 nights in the 20s might have caused large die off in this colony.The Monarchs with their ability to range far up into the cold of Canada’s summer,allowed the colony to still be intact with no apparent drop in population.

Sunny
Wind southerly
Winds 10 -15mph
Temps lower 60s - mid 70s
This was my 1st time out after 3 consecutive nights in the mid to upper 20s,and I found that most of the Spanish Needles burned to the ground along with other native wild flowers.The cold damage has reduced the availability of nectar sources to non native winter flowering plants;the most wide spread being volunteer Canola. Another source of nutritants is sap from a wide range of trees and bushes;usually with the help of woodpeckers opening portals in the bark.Weather permitting mid February will bring a new crop of nectaring opportunities just in time for the Monarchs to fuel up for there texture trip back north,and the early spring natives.

Very windy. 3 1/2 hours. 30 species which is not too bad for bottom of winter! We enjoyed the Zebra H, Checkered Whites. Hadn’t seen a Sickle-winged Skipper in a while. We always like Common Mellanas!

Unused parking lot edge bordered by pine Rocklands

Sunny
Wind southerly
Winds 10 - 15
Temps. Mid 50s - Mid 70s

Sunny
Wind southerly
Winds 10 - 15mph
Temps. Lower 60s - mid.70s

The sighting of only one Monarch at the Roscoe Rd site;made me wonder if the warm temps that followed the artic air from a couple of weekends ago;triggered their north movement out of the area?
In the last couple of years it has been the pattern that when the population that is more inland disappears the beach resident also are gone.I found the Ft Morgan population still strong;to early to leave.I’ll survey the area again over the next few weeks,until they make their departure.

low 60s, mostly sunny. My first butterfly of the year.

With Robert Epstein
70 - 80, sunny
Mesic Slash Pine/Saw Palmetto flatwoods.
Species observed during an unsuccessful five-hour woodpecker quest.
Some early spring blooms. Winter? What winter?
39 Red-bandeds were a delight

few nectar sources

A mostly cloudy and somewhat windy day, but lots of butterflies nonetheless.

Full sun, low 60s. 1 un-id sulphur Cloudless or Large Orange.

Full sun, low 60s.

Mostly sunny, 59 degrees

AM rain;sunny by mid day
Wind. Southerly
Winds 10 - 15 mph
Temps mid 60s - mid 70s

Mallow Scrub-Hairstreak was at North Palm Grove. I did not survey the park, these leps were incidental.

Dina Yellow lifer
not much butterfly activity

It started out as a rather cool morning so few leps but before we left around 10:45 am a few managed to show. Very few nectar sources available.

AM rain;mid day sunny;PM rain
Wind East to Southeasterly
Winds 15 - 20mph
Temps. Low 60s - Low 70s
1st swallowtail of 2017

36 species in about 1 1/2 hours. Not bad for bottom of winter! Highlights were Band-celled Sister, Mexican Bluewing, Texan Crescents, Zebra Heliconian, Blue and Red-bordered Metalmarks, Great Southern White, Mazan’s Scallopwing and Turk’s-cap White-Skipper,

Pleasantly surprised by 25 species here in about 1 1/2 hours. This area did not get below freezing on January 7-8. Highlights were Julia Heliconian, several Blue Metalmarks and Great Southern White.

very few butterflies

Rain early;sunny by mid morning
Wind Westerly
Winds 15 - 20 mph
Temps. Lower 60s - mid 70s

OBservations during a Manatee Audubon field trip. Windy with temps in the high 60’s - low 70’s
Too many Great Southern Whites to count—in the thousands.

Sunny
Wind west north westerly
Winds 15 - 20 with gusts to +30mph
Temps mid 50s - lower 70s

Highlights in a couple of hours of effort between 11 am and 1 pm were a lifer Mexican Silverspot laying eggs, and both American and Painted Ladies

41 species. Temp=83. Highlights (besides photos) were Lantana Scrub-Hairstreak, Red-bordered Metalmark, and Fawn-spotted Skipper.

Sunny
Wing southerly
Winds 10 - 15mph
Temps mid 40s - lower 60s

on Anacahuita (Wild Olive)

26 species. 83 degrees. Not bad for the bottom of winter! (On Jan 7-8 the Valley had its 2nd below freezing event in 26 years.) Temps at Falcon were down to 27 degrees.
Highlights included Nysa Road-side Skipper, Desert Skipper, Funereal Duskywing and numbers of Gray Hairstreaks. Oddly we did not notice any American Snouts. No Cloudless Sulphurs.

Full sun, high 50s. This area got so much rain recently it caused the Santa Margarita River to overflow, destroying much of the riparian habitat and preventing access to the sage scrub area

Monthly survey. With John Lampkin, Jean Evoy, Bill Evoy, Karen Finch, Jane Wallace, Dale Wallace. Mid 60’s, sunny, breezy. Much of site had been close mowed recently. Nectar was scarce except for Bidens alba and Ricardia grandiflora.

57F First butterfly of the year.
Mourning Cloak

Full sun, 70F-77F

Sunny
Wind southwesterly
Winds 10 - 15mph
Temps. Mid 30s. - low 60s

Three year ago after a rare snow and ice even ,the small winter Monarch population could have been wiped out;but they didn’t appear to have been affected.I followed this population over the next few weeks;then they were gone .
What changed?The weather returned to normal , spring flowers had started showing,making food much more available;but they were gone.The survey was personal difficult because of my allergy to pine pollen;the pollen is so thick at times it looks like a yellow fog,coat everything.
Last year at the end of Febuary;the same third week as the year before the winter Monarchs where gone .The winter was cooler on average , wild flowers had not started show yet,but the pines were putting out their clouds of yellow,and the Monarchs were gone .Then it occurred to me maybe I was not the only one that had a problem with pine pollen.
This year the winter Monarchs population was larger than usual;they were dripping off the the threes.The weather has been much warmer this winter,and the pines started putting on the pollen producing cones very early.The Monarch population had remained thick through the season;until this week.The pine pollen came a full month earlier and was as thick as my sinuses,and as in the past three winter seasons the winter Monarchs are now gone;with the exception of 4 Monarchs at Ft Morgan on this day.
This is a simple observation of the small winter population we have here on the Ft Morgan peninsula,and what appears to be their trigger to depart,they will be followed for additional data points to add to these three to see if the hypothesis holds up.

47 species. 3 hours. 79 degrees. Highlights were Mexican Bluewing, Mexican Fritillary, Red-crescent Scrub-Hairstreak, Julia Heliconian, Band-celled Sister and White-striped Longtail.

Sunny, 75f high. Low quality sage scrub and grassland habitat

This is a new trail on the east side of Lake Hancock. Limited habitat diversity.

Sunny
Wind southwesterly
Winds 15 - 20 mph
Temp. low 50s - upper 60s
1st Southern Dogface in many years, Zarucco Duskywing 1st Duskywing not Juvenal’s Duskywing,a nd Phaon Crescent was nice to see since they were scarce last year.

Three First-of-Year Butterflies for me.