August 2020 Sightings

70F, sunny, calm; saw both snowberry and hummingbird clearwings moths

Conservative estimate on the Monarchs

Sunny, near 80 degrees. Searched from 7000 feet to 10,200 feet. Plenty of nectar source in great shape. Very few butterflies at higher elevation. Not able to ID all fritillary.

11:30 AM - 12:45 PM, sunny, high 80s. Remarkably, the second most common species was Giant Swallowtail, with 7-8 seen. Unfortunately no Juniper Hairstreaks were seen.

Going out this AM first saw a butterfly that I couldn’t ID sitting on a canna leaf. I went back inside to my references and while it looked similar to a Silver-spotted Skipper, the markings are different. Later, I could directly compare them as both ended up together on a flower. Images below and thoughts on ID always appreciated. Increase in number of Sachems with at least 3 sets mating. FOY Painted Lady for the yard. In addition Brazilian Skipper, Cloudless Sulphur, Spicebush Swallowtail and American Snout caterpillars all continue on their host plants.

Before the rain a Monarch and male Black Swallowtail visited the garden. Later on the day 3 male Black Swallowtails emerged from chrysalis and were released after the wings were dry.

A drive down to the lighthouse and back, before heading home. Day Five of our Panhandle trip.

One of the tigers was an intermediate black female, a first for me.

Sunny, warm, wind was not a factor.

Windy conditions courtesy of tropical storm/hurricane passing by offshore to the east

Was rainy most if the day. A female Black Swallowtail came out of it’s chrysalis today. It was released when the rain stopped. Temp of 68 and low humidity.

My buddy reported it in his yard where I was yesterday. It was fresh but couldn’t fly right so was thinking he may have some breeding there like the Tersa Sphinxes last year.

Site located near the Philly Airport. Unfortunately some of the best butterfly areas are becoming overgrown. Overall the butterfly season has been rather poor this year at this location.

First time for a Bell’s RS in my yard, and only the second sighting for me. I planted two River Oats two years ago. I’ve not located any other River Oats nearby tin my neighborhood. Sometimes I wonder how butterflies find certain locations!

Light morph Black Swallowtail is not illustrated in Glassberg or Brock & Kaufmann field guides. Very distant photo by Karen LeMay. Image is quite small. Thanks to R. Bailowitz and J. Brock for id.

Sunny morning with temps around 72, then rain in later afternoon and eve. A tiger swallowtail visited as well as 3 Monarchs. One of them was a male Monarch released after it left chrysalis this morn.

Two of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails were dark form and nectaring on Buttonbush or Mexican Sunflower. Monarchs are laying eggs well here on second-growth Milkweed.Glassywing showed up today.

Mostly sunny, breezy, mid 80s. Great day…huge numbers on a 5.5 mile loop in the park! First Sleepy Oranges of the season, Zabulon Skippers are back, and 3 of the Tiger Swallowtails were the dark female form…including the intermediate individual pictured below…

9:30 a.m.-4:45 p.m. Weather: 82°-94°, partly cloudy all day, winds 7-10 mph. Nectar: Eryngium aquaticum, Bidens alba, Winged Loosestrife, Ironweed, Buttermint. LCooper, EPerry, RWarner.

walked the first half of the trails for my weekly survey. HIgh around 77 degrees with early morning low of 50. I was out for 3.5 hours.

10am-1035am, 87 degrees, partly cloudy, calm. COMPLETE RAIN OUT AFTER ONLY 35 MINUTES.

This includes all that I saw on a backpacking trip from the trailhead at 8,000 feet up to a ridge line at 10,950 feet. I would make the same elevation climb on the mountains on the other side of the lake on the 6th, and was surprised that the Clodius Parnassians and Pelidne Sulphurs were flying on this side of the lake (east facing slope), but Rocky Mountain Parnassians and Queen Alexandra’s Sulphurs were flying on the other side of the lake (west facing slope). The definite highlights were finding a nice population of Mountain Fritillaries, and the most Magdalena Alpines I’ve ever encountered in one location. They were patrolling all over the ridge line at 10,950 feet. I’ve included numbers for species that I encountered infrequently enough that I could keep track. Species that don’t have numbers next to them were ones that I found enough of that I couldn’t keep track, yet were restricted to specific areas.

White Admiral was on it’s last wings.

it turns out the Regal Fritillary is a county record. the elevation of the little meadow is 8,300’and not a usual place to find a Regal Fritillary. needless to say, it was a surprise for me. there wasn’t much flying today due to the clouds and then storm.

Another great day of butterflying. We were out for 3 hours. It rained in the early morning and didn’t clear up until we were well into our survey, got sunny and then got cloudy again the last 45 minutes. High around 80

9:30-10:30 am
Avis Campbell Garden (a small but lovely garden by the Montclair Public Library maintained by the Montclair Garden Club).
My first ever Pipevine Swallowtail (the 6th swallowtail sp. and the 58th species overall) in Montclair Township.

Two hours, bright sunshine temp. in low 80s. The Senna hebecarpa stand at the pond is loaded with Cloudless Sulphur adults and larvae (today I found 6 adults and 3 larvae), plus some Sleepy Oranges.

Arrived around 2:30 PM. It has rained earlier that afternoon but now was dry & warm. Elevation is 5751 ft at this location. For the 2nd consecutive year, this location was already well into a season ending drought. Conditions seemed dryer than the previous year. Over the next 5 days I visited 2 other times. This year was my worse results at this park. I also saw a no ID fritillary.

Starting weather was clear, 69°, 2-4mph winds
Ending weather was partly cloudy, 77°, 4mph winds
Surveyed from 10:15am-2:15pm
R. Spink and J. Grzeskowiak

Starting weather was mostly cloudy, 72°, 9mph winds
Ending weather was partly cloudy, 72°, 9mph winds
Surveyed for two hours

The list includes all I saw from the trailhead at 8,000 feet up to the plateau at Osborn Mountain (11,500 feet). I had to use an Elk trail to get to the top of the mountain as there is no designated hiking trail, but I was rewarded by seeing a herd of Elk, and a large population of Mountain Fritillaries. An incoming storm chased me off of the top of the mountain before I could get photos of the species at the top.

Dogbane in two of my fields has been excellent for Pearl Crescents and Meadow Fritillaries. Yesterday was the first day that I saw a Common Buckeye on it. Unfortunately it was on it’s last wings. Red-spotted Admirals spent the day on the feeders. Lots of activity, I love it!

I was joined by Karen Miller and Joyce Depew today. We had to wait a short while till the sun came out but then it was very active. Most of the butterflies were nectaring on Bergamot, Purple Loosestrife and White Clover.

Mostly Cloudy, 80 degrees, and still pretty damp from Hurricane Isaias. Found the Swallowtail Batesian Mimicry examples (female Eastern Tiger dark form, female Black, and both male and female Spicebush). Unfortunately didn’t see the individual they’re mimicking (Pipevine), and couldn’t catch a photo today of the Red-spotted Purples, which are a non-swallowtail example. First Painted Ladies since early May, and first Tawny Emperor of the year! Still seeing staggering numbers of Tiger Swallowtails…

sunny, low 80’s, between 12 and 1:15

sunny, low 80’s, between 1 and 2:30 p.m.

the vast, vast majority of butterflies seen were on damp gravel road as seen in two photos

there were other anglewings but couldn’t get definite ID

9 am - 1pm Cloudy, mid-70s

85 degrees, sunny and very humid.

Weather was mostly clear, 81°, 6-8mph winds
Surveyed from 3:00pm-4:30pm

Eleven Monarchs were released after their wings were dried

Pleasant sunny Friday with temp around 80 degrees, light wind. Low humidity. Some 7 Monarchs were released after they came out of their chrysalises and dried wings!

walked Gifford Point today for 1.25 hours. It was 90% clouds and 82 degrees. Was surprised to see so many butterflies. Saw my first Sleepy Orange of the year.

Cool morning upper 60s

(22-155) Sunny skies.

Visited 7 & 8 August. Sunny, very warm, with occasional breezy winds. Elevation 12,000 just above the pass on the tundra.

Visited August 7 & 8. Both days warm, temps nearing 70 degrees at 10,000 feet elevation. Some plants were already dried. The season was already advanced for this location.

Obs. made from 9:20 a.m. to 6 p.m. Partly cloudy & 74 to 84 degrees. A fairly extensive search of the NWR today turned up a good showing of butterflies in this otherwise difficult butterfly year. Eupatorium & NY Iromweed the primary nectar sources in the butterfly garden, with sweet pepperbush past it’s peak. Some Common Milkweed that was mowed down in June is now in bloom drawing in some nice activity.

930am-1pm, 83-92 degrees, sunny, calm

Cloudy, warm and humid. Eastern Tailed-Blue came to have a drink of my sweat. Most cooperative one I’ve ever seen.

The Giant Swallowtail was the first one of the year.

Approximately 20 Monarch caters are eating away milkweed.

A total if 6 Monarchs were released

High humidity and temps in the 90s! Some wind. Released a female Monarch early afternoon. Saw one by a church. A female Black Swallowtail visited the certified butterfly garden. Likewise a tiger swallowtail

3rd Cloudless Sulphur this season, but this one never stopped even though I have hundreds of Cannas and some Senna. No Black Swallowtails but loads of Cats????

10:30-15:50 EDT. Partly sunny to mostly cloudy: 79-82 deg F, wind 0-5 mph. Excellent day: 25 species.

Sunny & warm. One no ID skipper.

9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Weather: 82°-91°, sunny to partly cloudy with brief rain at 3 p.m. Lots of nectar sources inc Pickerelweed, Spanish needles, mistflower, loosestrife, elephant’s foot, Carphephorus spp, partridge pea, Gnaphalium spp. LCooper, SFarnsworth, SKelly, WWallenstein.

Sunny

Very dry, flowers are about all dried up.

A few Frits flying too

A very hot humid day with breeze. First Painted Lady appeared. Two Monarchs came out of chrysalises-1 male, 1female.

Sunny, hot, humid, 92 degrees. Check out this brilliant blue female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail…

93 degrees, sunny with intermiddent clouds.

Recent roadside mowing reduced nectar sources. Large stands of Thalia were productive for Brazilians and ruderal area on county park land yielded good numbers of Three-spotted.

Backyard Butterflies this past week. While battered and tattered, the Crown Fritillary likely has traveled more than 15 miles to get here. It is not a city butterfly.

Sunny, mid 90’s, dry for several days. Several Fiery Skippers at lantana display at Lowes.

Lance Verderame brought it to my attention that he had a Leonard’s Skipper on Saturday. Needless to say I headed up there first thing this morning. There was a heavy dew that took a while to dry, but then the Dogbane patch came alive. A pleasant surprise was a Dion Skipper.

First record of this species in county per inaturalist, ebutterfly.

945am-1235pm, 85-91 degrees, sunny, calm

First Lancaster County Cloudless for me.

Humid afternoon with temp of 92 degrees.

A great day for butterflying, 83 degrees and sunny. Saw my first White M Hairstreak and the second time for the forest, the last time 2012. We did the first half of our weekly survey.

94 degrees, sunny. It’s rainned almost everyday for 2 weeks.

Partly Cloudy, humid, breezy, upper 80s. Wasn’t sure of this hike at first glance with overall lack of nectar sources…but it proved worthy with terrain diversity. Mix of highland milkweed prairie and steep woodland banks down to Jordan Creek…

Short walk today. Hot and sunny

Partly cloudy at the start, then full sun. Upper 70s.

Walked 2 miles and back.

First time seeing Colorado Hairstreaks along this trail!

An area of mixed woods, pools, and wetlands. This time of year large areas of ironweed in bloom. Temps in 90s and humid. Saw what I believe is a first for me a hybrid Canadian Tiger Swallowtail beside Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

It was 100% cloudy today but the temperature was around 84 degrees. Even with all of the clouds we saw plenty of butterflies and species on our weekly survey.

95 degrees, Sunny. Lots of rain lately! Zinnias have been the favored nectar source all summer but they’ve taken a beating from all the rain and now Mexican Sunflower alive with butterflies. Other nectar sources include Firecracker plant, Salvia, Old-fashioned petunias, abelia shrub, agapanthus lily, plumbago (host plant for Cassius Blues & Swallowtails nectar on it alot), hollyhock, butterfly bush, helitrope & gallarida.

With Scott Anderson; 9:10 - 12:20
81 - 92 and humid.