Recent sightings

I led a butterfly identification workshop. Highlights included finding a newly emerged Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (spotted by one of the children in our group), watching a female Monarch laying eggs and finding a male Diana Fritillary.

We moved here 5 years ago. This is the first Pipevine we have seen in our yard.

Mostly cloudy with scattered showers. 70’s.

In Los Alamos today we have Dorothy Hoard Butterfly count. I did from our yard. I had 3 species and watched from 10.30am to 12.30pm.

All six individual butterflies were on plantings in front of an apartment building in downtown Montclair. The first ever Common Sootywing for me in this neighborhood. Probably the highest number of species I have seen at any given time here!!!

A pair of monarchs visited this morning. Quite muggy and partly sunny

85 and sunny

85 and sunny

Just walked along the roads/trails near the peak (9547ft)

Also saw 2-tailed Swallowtail, Anise Swallowtail, a 1st instar Indra Swallowtail and Silvery Blue (possibly Arrowhead Blue) caterpillars.

92 degrees - between noon and 1 pm on a hot sunny day before it started to rain. Garden was chock full of butterflies and gulf fritillary caterpillars on the move looking for a nice place to attach themselves.

Walked from 9 - 11. Started out sunny and then it got cloudy. Temperature around 82 degrees, wind 9.2 mph. Was surprised at all of the red spotted purples and eastern comma that I saw. Driving to the parking lot I saw at least 5 Red-spotted Purples that flew up and I could identify for sure. I am sure there were more.

73 to 80 degrees, windy, mostly sunny

With Alan and Della Wells, Jane Lampkin, Nancy Slowik, Dan Albantides, Karen Nickeson
4.5 hours, temps in high 80’s
Pic with Dun Skippers shows the kind of day it was!

Sunny, 92 degrees when observing these butterflies.

Leaderless Walk (6 participants)

It was a hot humid day with average temperature of 86 degrees and humidity of 61%. Holly and I were out for 4 hours starting at 9 and saw over 300 butterflies. We saw our first cloudless Sulphur of the year.

Partly cloudy, 81F.

Very warm and humid day. Temps upper 80s. Wild bergamot is blooming en masse. Also, a dying elm tree had Tawny and Hackberry Emperors fighting over sap patches.

With Alan Wells and Jane Lampkin
High 80’s-low 90’s
Pic shows Summer Azure variant, with strongly-marked HW border. The border reminds us of the “marginata” form of the Spring Azure.

Treat to see 2 Two-tailed Swallowtails at Lantana Bloom having a feast. Also the Black Swallowtail laid eggs on 9th has tiny caterpillars.

I just saw the first Monarch I’ve seen in quite awhile outside my office.

Sunny, muggy and 91 degrees with calm winds.

The salvia and lantana have attracted many butterflies this month.

Nature trail and area near ponds just ahead of the county mowing machinery.

Hackberry Emperors are uncommon in Howard County because their host plants are also uncommon. This spot has several Hackberry trees.

…Dutchman’s Pipevine really starting to produce quite a few pupae.This one appears to be in its fifth and final instar…

My milkweed patch in my yard

Rain showers in the am but cleared for the afternoon…several species came out of hiding today!

I have frequent visits by Pipevine Swallowtails and have 5 little pipevine cats that I am rearing. Also, I had Spicebush cats last month but I think they are off in chrysalids somewhere. I have 1 female Monarch who has littered my yard with eggs and 1 tiger swallowtail but I’m not fast enough to get a pic of it yet. And of course a number of black swallowtail cats on my rue. Oh and plume moths

North team of the NABA butterfly count. 9:30 - 3 pm; 84 - 92 degrees; sun am - 75%, pm - 20%. LCooper, KDucham, JDriscoll, SFarnsworth, JMcCollom, LRhodes.
Brazilian Skipper - 14 caterpillars on Thalia geniculata.

With Jane Lampkin and Marina Brodskaya-Soucie
80, sunny

Full sun 75F

5:45 to 6:30PM
Sunny 73 degrees

12:15PM to 4:00PM
Partly Cloudy 70 degrees

I believe I saw Atlantis Fritillary—had blue-gray eyes which are visible in attached image–smaller than Great-spangled Fritillary

White Clover on paths is main nectar source and 2/3rd s way around pond, between pond path and road is a large patch of just blooming Dogbane

observed 1 hr outside after rainfall today

With Matt Ceplo, Groundskeeper and Jane Lampkin, Jolie Lampkin, Karen Frei, Laura Seaton and Jason Finn
80’s, sun with some clouds
Also: 2 Monarch and 1 Black ST caterpillars

Wow!

Also one Monarch larva on Common Milkweed.

Sunny afternoon, 74 degrees and low humidity when seeing the monarch. Saw a hairstreak butterfly as well, but couldn’t tell its features to determine it accurately.

12:15-15:25 EDT. Mostly sunny, 83-89 deg F, wind 0-5 mph.

Saw a Polydamas Swallowtail laying eggs on dutch pipevine. Also saw small caterpillars on another pipevine plant.

Two-tailed Swallowtail with all tails intact on Lantana bloom.

Third Sunday report on second brood Pipevines. Though the number reported is larger than last weeks that is due to more extensive looking.
10 of 43 Pipevines were males on damp sand along Ohio River.

Butterflies have been scarce in my yard this summer. I think that rainy, cool May we had set them back.

Butterfly count with help of Philip Dodson

Plus 4 Clearwing Moths.

Wow🦋

Good species variety, but where are the skippers?

9:45–10:30 A.M.; mostly sunny; lower 80s

Hummingbird Clearwing moths also flying.

A pleasant surprise (GPH), especially since I was about 20’ up, pruning a a tree!

9:00am-3:00pm
Lots of butterflies, sunshine in the morning,rained hard from 12-1, cloudy afterwards

Gorgeous canyons with streams, gorgeous forests, but raining heavy by noon.

Outside roadsides on the Highlands Hammock NABA butterfly count. 6 Long-tailed Skipper caterpillars. Sun all day, 82-93 degrees. Sue Farnsworth, Linda Cooper

RWarner & EPerry

mostly cloudy, 68 to 79 degrees, Massachusetts Butterfly Club trip

Simius roadside-skipper is east of its typical range, and it was a surprise. Very low butterfly count today could be due to an unusual abundance of large dragonflies. My last five counts here produced at least 28 species of butterflies, but not today.

After an extremely heavy thunderstorm of 2.78 inches, in an hour on Thursday eve, everything seemed to explode in volume and variety. Buttonbush and Butterfly bush are the main nectar sources here now and Liatris and Catmint following strongly.

Hot, humid conditions…observed for 2.5 hrs this morning

Wow!

Partly sunny 84 - lots of nectar sources - poor species variety and quantity

We butterflied the Parsnip Lakes Road and Hyatt Prairie area in the monument today. We saw the most Haydaspe Fritillaries since moving to Oregon three years ago! We went to Parsnip Lakes Road to find Great Spangled Fritillaries, which we found three!

My wife and I butterflied Mt. Ashland today. Wildflowers are at their peak and we saw lots of butterflies. There are still a few patches of snow in the shadows in the high peaks, which is probably going to make the wildflower show last a few more weeks. Seeing a Pine White this early is unusual, I think.

Perfect weather, little wind, 78F

Monarch on our milkweed plant

The Lorquin’s Admiral is a rare visitor to my yard. It perched on a blood orange tree for about half an hour and was on patrol to chase cabbage butterflies off my enormous plumbago plant (about 20 feet high).

Increase in activity today…observed in backyard 3 hrs this morning….Heat index 104

The family hiked just one hour along the trail from 10-11.

RWarner & EPerry

Overcast with some sun at times. Elevation: 6200 - 8400ft

Went only 2 miles to the meadow, wandered around meadow and returned.

Saw Frits too!

(Saw Moose and calf!)

As part of Weslaco NABA butterfly count, 3 miles, 3.5 hours

FIRST sighting of a GIANT SWALLOWTAIL today
about 3:30 P.M. Very beautiful

Sunny 80 degrees and low humidity.

8:40 - 12:15
Hot, humid, partly cloudy, breezy at times

Only out for an hour from 10-11 as the flies convinced my boys to stop hiking.

With David Rawlinson, dune areas, careful to skirt Snowy Plover nesting areas. Marine layer never fully backed off, but occasional weak sun was enough to get a few butterflies moving. In addition to butterflies listed, we saw several unidentified Vanessas including on possible Red Admiral.

Glad to see a few species flying around today…has been painfully slow…..hot and dry…mid 90’s

I was there from 9:45 AM till 11:45 AM. The temperature was about 70F with bright blue sunny skies.

It was hopping there today. Temp 90 and very humid. Thrilled to see 4 different Juniper Hairstreaks - all in different spots.

Focused mainly on the Statira’s nectaring on the fire bushes.

7:45 - 9:00 morning walk around the park

Sunny, high in the upper 90s.

As part of the Walk in Water NABA count. 9 am - 3 pm when rain ended count, 78-91 degrees, winds light, sun most of day. 16 Brazilian Skipper caterpillars but no adults seen. LCooper, JDuBois, SFarnsworth.

Also saw an unidentified white and fritillary.

Sunny, very muggy an 88 degrees at 4:30pm. A monarch flying in downtown Rochester, viewed by a parking lot.

Elevation: 7800 - 8400

Started around 4pm — sunny day but now cloudy

Beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

The location was in the lot by the stable.

First of season

No skippers!

The swallowtail was a black female.

1:30-4:30 pm. Conditions upper 70s and mostly sunny. Aided by Dr. David Guzo.
Most or all of the Tiger Swallowtails appeared to be Eastern-Canadian hybrids.
“Red-Spotted Admiral” refers to a hybrid Red-Spotted Purple/White Admiral.

1 Great Spangled Fritillary in between rain showers🦋

Sunny, but humid day. Female swallowtail fluttered by and laid 5 eggs on my fennel. Photos will follow in about a month.

Hike was from 10:30-2:30 from the trailhead all the way to the lake in the basin. Also saw one Ranchman’s Tiger Moth (Arctic virginalis), an unidentified crescent, and an unidentified comma.

1:00pm-3:00pm

Mostly sunny, 90 degrees.
One-hour walk, 4—5 p.m.
Nice, fresh Red Admirals. A couple landed on me. It always occurs to me that we take Red Admirals for granted. Were these butterflies much rarer, we’d travel hundreds of miles to see them!
No Swallowtails nor Sulphurs; perhaps between broods.
Catalpa Sphinx moth at preserve headquarters. No great shock; a gigantic, old Catalpa tree nearby.
Beautiful Ebony Jewelwing Damselflies.
Dozens of Common Whitetail Dragonflies around puddles!

86 to 89 degrees, mostly sunny

85 to 89 degrees, mostly sunny

Two lovely mating Great Spangled Fritillaries!