Sighting for August 5, 2013
Shane Patterson
Sedan Bottoms WMA
Appanoose County, IA
- Black Swallowtail 18
- Giant Swallowtail 8
- Eastern Tiger Swallowtail 2
- Checkered White 1
- Cabbage White 25
- Clouded Sulphur 35
- Orange Sulphur 80
- Little Yellow 3
- Dainty Sulphur 1
- Bronze Copper 2
- Eastern Tailed-Blue 55
- 'Summer' Spring Azure 12
- Variegated Fritillary 1
- Great Spangled Fritillary 35
- Silvery Checkerspot 1
- Pearl Crescent 25
- Question Mark 1
- Gray Comma 6
- Mourning Cloak 1
- Red Admiral 3
- Common Buckeye 30
- Red-spotted Purple 1
- Viceroy 8
- Common Wood-Nymph 24
- Monarch 7
- Silver-spotted Skipper 10
- Southern Cloudywing 3
- Horace's Duskywing 2
- Common Checkered-Skipper 4
- Common Sootywing 1
- Least Skipper 5
- Fiery Skipper 3
- Peck's Skipper 1
- Tawny-edged Skipper 22
- Northern Broken-Dash 6
- Sachem 1
- Delaware Skipper 2
- Zabulon Skipper 2
- Dun Skipper 3
Southern Cloudywing
Gray Comma
Time: 15:30-18:45
Weather: 84-82 °F, mostly sunny to partly cloudy, humid, and calm.
Habitat: I focused the majority of the visit in nicely restored mesic prairie/meadow and sunny woodland margins at the property’s western extent; Liatris pycnostachya, Monarda fistulosa, and Pycnanthemum virginianum were blooming abundantly. I spent the remaining time (18:00-18:45) along fields, sloughs, and gravel roadsides down in the namesake lowlands.
Notes: This is the second year in a row that I have encountered Southern Cloudywing late July-Aug at this location. Among smaller species on this visit, Tawny-edged Skippers were most conspicuous, as males were persistently swirling up to chase off invaders, including bees and wasps.