Recent sightings

Two hours spent this afternoon. Eagle Lake is one of the most reliable sites in the state for Dainty Sulphurs and Phaon Crescents. Goatweed Leafwings were a bit of a surprise this late in the season.

45-minute walk, late afternoon

Bronze Coppers still all males, based on those which opened their wings

Orange Sulphur on base of curb below Rustic Sphinx moth, Manduca rustica, on wall, 8 a.m. Actually, the Rustic Sphinx moth is a “lifer” for me, considered uncommon here, a stray from further south.

11:30 AM - 1:00 PM.

Sunny, 86 degrees, breezy at times. The deserts of San Diego County received its first rain recently since last winter. This resulted in quite an increase in activity compared to my last visit there, one week ago.

Cloudy and cooler

The inner loop.

Sunny, hot, humid. Bow Hunting Season open. Major nectar sources are Rayless Sunflower, Tall Elephant’s Foot, Vanilla Leaf, Bidens sp.

early this morning around 9 am, sunny around 70. We have been having a record number of monarchs in our back yard. One day saw over 50. They have been feeding on zinnia, aster, dahlia, lantana and butterfly bush

It was 75 degrees, started out sunny then turned cloudy, windy

11:00-4:30, breezy but sunny, 75 degrees.

Surprise of the day was a Northern White Skipper, I rarely see them here. The pattern on the Woodland Skipper pictured is unusually crisp.

Everywhere I turned there were Elves today!

Recent 1.6 inchs of rain have helped nectar sources improve, along with my patch of;Cannas, sunflowers, buckwheat and Mexican Sunflowers, etc, however Butterfly bush is being neglected now.

75-78F

Apparently the same beat-up Buckeye has been hanging around the garden for at least a week.

Hot and sunny, no wind.
An apparent cabbage White male (black wing tips) mating with a Clouded Sulphur. No picture I’m afraid. How often does this happen?

Mostly sunny. A 3 hour search for Great Purple Hairstreak and Electra Buckmoth resulted in very little of interest.

Monarchs seen flying around and nectaring upon white Butterfly Bush.

about an hour, 75 degrees, sunny. The cloudless sulphur was around the whole time, and quite possibly is the same one seen earlier at Lido Preserve which is just to the west.

The south side of this area has been bulldozed down to bare dirt/sand since my last visit, which may explain why the buckeyes were where they were; 4 were on one scraggly weed at one time- a mated pair and two ‘onlookers’, the most I have seen in one spot at one time in the NE.

one hour, 75 degrees, sunny. The cloudless sulphur stuck around for about two minutes which is a long time for them to linger in one spot up here, then headed east….

11:10 am - 2:40 pm; temps from mid-70s to mid-80s; mostly sunny

sunny and warm. mid 80”s

Low 70s, partly cloudy and breezy. Unfortunately the trail here is far away from most of the water.

Most of roadside is not being mowed. Lots of Bidens etc.

Hot, sunny, humid.

Weekly Odonate and Butterfly count. Survey with Della Wells and Nancy Slowik.

09:30 AM to 01:00 PM; air temperature ranged from 67 to 85 F; dew point temperature ranged from 53 to 59 F; high wind speed 3 to 7 mph from S.

This Monarch was in the herb section of the expansive gardens on a mild autumn day (75F)

All seen along the trail going along the west side of the dump.

Beautiful day.sunnyin the low 80’s
Lifer -Little Yellow

Sunny day after a storm.

mid-80s; m sunny. Walked about 4 miles in 3 hours

I was excited to find 8 species of butterflies. Snow on 9/13/16 and today 80 degrees, sunny with about winds 15 MPH. I saw another Sulphur species that I wasn’t able to ID.

Two MA lifers for me in one day!

4:00-5:30pm

7800-8400 ft

snout captured by an ambush bug

Sunny afternoon and a little humid. Temp around 85 when the monarch visited the milkweeds.

A small surge of Fiery Skippers for over a week here. On the 17th, an Ocola Skipper was found by Mike Freeman in Central Park, for which a report with his photo is in these sightings. There are more than 10 prior records of that species from Central Park in Manhattan.
An attempt to find one there again on the 18th was not successful.

Six hour visit after a business trip, park was beautiful, but diversity and abundance were lower than I was expecting. Still, the sight of monarchs “launching” southward from the tip of the point was impressive.

Also: one unidentified anglewing

Saw several in my neighbours backyard.

Humid and 85 degrees, partly cloudy. One dark female E. Tiger ST, and one white form sulphur sp., one anglewing sp.

Cloudy,humid day in 70’s 2:30-4:00 PM
Rare MA sighting of Checkered White

4 butterflies flew briefly betweeen rain showers.

Calm, hot and sunny, a perfect butterfly day!

72 degrees, partly cloudy, breezy.

This Snout perched on our car antenna for several minutes.

This is a new butterfly to me, very pretty. It is very small, rubbing its wings together, flitting on native plants, on a warm afternoon (90F)

The Long-tailed Skipper stayed in view for about 10 minutes until it flew up into a maple tree.

Approximately 7 Monarch caterpillars about a week old no adult Monarch sighted.

Found in Conservatory Garden’s French garden area, in the morning. Photo by Mike Freeman, submitted to Sightings by Tom Fiore - seen & photo’d only by Freeman, only on the 17th. (prior records for this species in this park total more than ten, over many years.)

Black Swallowtail was laying eggs on fresh growth Queen Anne’s Lace. Great Spangleds very worn. See image

Sunny, 85 degrees with very gusty winds.

Sunny, 94 degrees, breezy to gusty.

Maine state record!

Early in Lancaster County, PA I only had 2 Monarchs, later at home in Chester County PA (7 miles distance) it became warmer with the sun shining on and off again, bringing out the butterflies. Again, Fiery Skipper nectaring on Buckwheat blossoms

2 Monarch Caterpillars found on milkweed plant onside of the road

Sightings made between 2:00 - 3:00 PM.

Roadsides were more productive than woodlands

1-hour walk, 3—4 p.m., mostly sunny & 80 degrees.

2nd brood of Bronze Coppers; of those which opened their wings, all males.

One episode of three butterflies chasing one another in a circle: Two Bronze Coppers & one Common Buckeye.

Warm, overcast, breezy.
This area is an overflow basin - mostly dried up.
Crescent explosion.

Weekly Odonate and Butterfly count. Survey with Della Wells and Nancy Slowik.

09:30 AM to 12:30 PM; air temperature ranged from 61 to 65 F; dew point temperature ranged from 54 to 58 F; high wind speed 5 to 10 mph from ESE.

There are lots of Monarchs in the area right now. Working in a Hay field and they are all over the place

80F with Dave Bartholomew, David Rawlinson, Nancy Asquith

7600-9600ft

Saw coming down from the lake.

The Gulf Frit was a nice yard sighting for this far north - although it is 98 degrees here today.

Cooler day - some very worn looking Sachems and many mint fresh Peck’s

Coyotebush (Baccharis pilularis) is just starting to come into bloom, may be more attractive next week. Yellow star thistle and a small yellow composite are the main nectar sources at present.

High 75F. Rather weedy and heavily traveled site. It was nice to see many Pygmies and Eufala which I don’t see in most areas I go to.

3:30-4:30. 70 degrees and sunny

Significant drop in numbers of butterflies and temperature here today.

11:00am-2:30pm, 73F, sunny
I was able to photograph all 4 White M Hairstreaks, all on Late-flowering Thoroughwort.

Also had one female white form sulphur. Most of the species were pretty fresh looking.

Yesterday was similar to the day before, however today the main nectar source, before noon turned to a strip of Buckwheat with: Bees, Wasps, Butterflies and even Hummingbirds trying this new taste sensation here.

Cloudy and 65 degrees. The monarchs were really out today but very few other butterflies

80, sunny, no wind - perfect!

These butterflies were flying around and feeding at Plumbago flowers next to bike path near Devereux Creek. Partly cloudy day in the 70’s F.

All photos except Q-Mark by K. Wallstrom; the Little Yellows were all seen at Gerritsen Beach park, a traditional, known location for the species; Cloudless Sulphurs also seen there & one was cooperative for photos on red flowers: that one at F. Bennett Field; a search of the gardens at F.B. Field did not reveal any unexpected species to us. Warm & sunny, south wind.

Photo of Common Checkered-Skipper taken late afternoon. Temp 80 degrees, mostly sunny and humid. It was flying around with another of its same type.

Also found several Silver-spotted Skipper carerpillars on Bristly Locust.

Unknown dark grass skipper

Cloudless Sulphurs mating

A yard first! Uncommon visitor to this area (Clear Lake City/Houston/Harris County). Off-white female Large Orange Sulphur. She nectared on Duranta and Jamaica (blue) Porterweed; both plants from a Cockrell Butterfly Center plant sale.

Quite dry here, only nectar sources are Budelia, Mexican Sunflowers, few Mint species, Sunflowers, Buckwheat in bloom, New York Ironweed and some Zinnias. Fiery- Sachem comparison in one pic.

For the past two weeks we have been seeing a lot of action in a nearby small Liatris patch.

Most plants here were severely drought stressed.

74 and sunny

Fresh adult seen on my patio this am.