Recent sightings

After 2+ inches of much needed rain yesterday we have a few new butterflies. 85 degrees, sunny.

Mostly sunny and 72° with a light breeze from 5:50 to 6:40pm, and smoky haze and odor from distant wildfires. I walked north from the lagoon along the Coastal Trail a short ways. Butterfly activity was very light but it was nice to find a vibrant newly-eclosed Tortoiseshell.

Sunny with a light breeze and 70° from 6:15 to 7pm. Conservative counts but fewer Common Ringlets than last week at this location. I was glad this evening for close views of the Mormon Fritillaries that had eluded me and my camera last week. My wife was waiting patiently for me throughout, and as we were about to get in the car she heard movement among the trees across the road. We were happy to find a porcupine there, and watched it climb a large birch tree.

The No Name Trailhead has become my favorite trail of the three trails I visit in my county, as each time I go, I see new-to-me butterfly species. This month, I’ve seen twenty new species on that trail.

10:30-12:50, sunny, 86 degrees, elevation about 6000 feet

10:30 AM - 6:15 PM, mostly sunny in the 70s.

Common Milkweed was in peak bloom throughout the park. Little Glassywings were abundant. It was hard to find a milkweed plant without one to six on it.

Sunny with temperature in the high sixties at about 3:55pm. I was working from home this afternoon and saw an orange butterfly flutter past the back deck. I hadn’t seen a fritillary in the yard or neighborhood before so ran outside with the camera. I found a Mormon Fritillary in the front yard and followed it a couple of houses down the block to get photos.

85 degrees, full sun. We were amazed at the buttonbush and thistle, fresh and in full bloom on Woody Pond Dam. There was also helitrope and clover. We also hiked the road opposite Goosepond where there is usually water but we are 12” behind on rain this year and there was no water but a little helitrope blooming. The fogfruit on Wildlife Drive in one spot where we usually see Little Metalmark and Phaon Crescent had been mowed too short but we found a little they missed and all the crescents on it. Unfortunately the fogfruit at Barbour River Landing was killed along with the bahaya grass except for a tiny bit so we found no crescents there yesterday.

Partly sunny 78degrees. A Question Mark visited milkweeds, but moved quickly I couldn’t take its picture. Had a Monarch, tiger swallowtail and Ruby-throated Hummingbird visiting all at the same time. An adventrous afternoon at certified butterfly garden #2490.

Partly cloudy, breezy, upper 80s. Good variety and the milkweed is blooming…unfortunately nothing wanted to stay still for photos! Hoary Edges are out. Single worn Hobomok Skipper…nearing the end of their flight. Zabulon Skippers appear worn and with lower numbers, approaching the end of their first brood.

On the drive from Anchorage we had dense, low clouds and cool weather with occasional drizzle well past Palmer, so I was beginning to despair for good butterflying conditions. However, as we drove into the mountains toward Hatcher Pass we left the clouds below and came out into beautiful sunshine with occasional small puffy clouds and a light breeze. Temperatures were in the high fifties as I got started at 12:15pm and were in the high sixties as I finished at 4pm. I’ve uploaded lots of photos due to the trickiness with some of these IDs. Observations were between 3,000 to roughly 3,600 feet in elevation, all above the treeline. I started near the parking area below Independence Mine just before the ranger station and on the eastern slope overlooking the parking area, and then spent the rest of the afternoon along the south-facing slope of Skyscraper Mountain. Polixenes Arctic (Oeneis polixenes) and Theano Alpine (Erebia pawloskii) counts are conservative. For the Polixenes Arctics, I only counted those I successfully photographed but other likely individuals were observed. The Melissa Arctic (Oeneis melissa), Theano Alpines, and Mountain Fritillaries (Boloria alaskensis) were all first-time sightings for me (at least documented with photos in the case of the fritillaries, which were very common). No White-veined Arctics (Oeneis bore) were observed but maybe it’s still early for them at this location. A beautiful day in the mountains and wonderful alpine butterflying.

85 degrees, sunny with a nice breeze.

Coral Haistreaks freshly-out in at least 2 locations, incl. in Brooklyn (F.B. Field) but adjacent to Jamaica Bay, utilizing Orange Milkweed at that site, and going to var. dogbanes and other nectar-flowers at the Neponsit ‘barrens’ area. An E. Tailed-Blue was photo’d. with virtually no tails, despite otherwise an fresh [2nd-brood] look. Rather fresh-looking, but not photo’d. were Am. Coppers. A sole Variegated Fritillary played hard-to-photo at ‘egg marsh’ area by Jamaica Bay, a male in fresh & feisty condition. The Am. Lady and Common Buckeyes seen all appeared quite fresh, one Buckeye seemed to be ovipositing on some small plants in thick vegetation. Little Wood-Satyrs were easily the most-commonly seen species of the day, and in multiple locations. Delaware Skippers and Crossline Skipper appeared to be very freshly-out; probably rather less-so of a single Zabulon Skipper noted. Some additional/poss. species were seen too-quickly to make ID determinations, incl. some small dark skippers. Poison-Ivy was the most-regularly seen plant! Weather: hot by afternoon with full sun, temp. at shore cooler than midtown parts of city, with a southerly [on-shore] breeze for the afternoon. The most time was spent at the Neponsit area on the Rockaways. A bit of time was also taken to seek Salt-Marsh Skipper but none were noticed on this outing.

NABA butterfly count. The range is in both Polk and Highlands Cos. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m. Weather: 82°-86°, winds 6-11 mph; sun a.m.-10%, p.m.-40%, some rain. Lots of nectar choices. LCooper, SFarnsworth, DFraser, MHoffman, NPrine, DJSmith.

It’s been about a month since I walked this trail; today I saw two new species and a tiny dark brown butterfly that I could not photograph or identify.

11-12:45, sun with clouds, then rain, 87 degrees

Walked the 1st 3 miles and back
Slow day for butterflies

83 degrees sunny. Helitrope was the primary nectar source.

84 degrees, partially cloudy. Checked for Eastern Pygmy-blue on host plant and Ox-eye Daisies at entrance docks.

85 degrees, sunny. We walked along the edges of the new meadow created when pine trees cut due to beetle infestation for 20 minutes. We tried to check all the milkweed as some was was still blooming. There were less than 12 very tiny pieces of helitrope on the way in. We have never seen Juniper Hairstreak this late in the year, this is a FOS for us in GA.

While I was a passenger riding up MD 213 just a few miles above Galena, MD there was a long stretch of roadside Dogbane where there were hundreds of Cabbage Whites, and many Orange Sulphurs were seen.