December 2014 Sightings

Eastern Comma winter form flying on day of temperatures in the 60s

Same as yesterday: temps and sun and fewer butterflies.

Unseasonable Zebra Heliconians seen flying today.

Sun early; high clouds late morning; temps upper 50s AM to mid 70s PM; sea fog moved in late afternoon. Volunteer canola from past crops are providing food for our late season butterflies.

AM lower 60s, fog burned off with the sun rise, but it left every thing dripping with a heavy dew. PM got into the upper 70s. I took about an hour to check on a couple of the colony sights for the White Peacock I found in Aug.; to see how the host plant were doing after the cold spell from mid Nov.; and found that the Frog Fruit flower heads had been killed back, and the Water Hyssop showed a little frost burn as well….As I was leaving the 1st sight I found a small patch of Spanish Needles and there was a badly worn White Peacock feeding and sunning.

Early season Camellia are getting all of the attention now even
though the Thorny Olive hedge is full of flowers. This was another warm and mostly sunny day, highs in the upper 70s.

63F

Surprise; Surprise additional White Peacock sighting, and they were definitely different individuals from the sighting of a couple of days ago, and they appeared to be a courting couple. Warm and partly cloudy, back into upper 70s.

More of the same in this location; cooler today low 60s for high, started in upper 40s with clear skies.

Warm, sunny, very light breeze. There has been frost at night. Butterflies were nectaring on a cultivated Rosemary in Heske Garden, alongside honeybees. Elsewhere in the park were Checkered Whites and one Painted Lady.

The month long record (near record) warmth is having an affect.

Today started in the lower 40s and warmed to the mid 60s. Checked on a couple of locations; both produced some good sightings.

Upper 30s,morning;warmed only to the upper 50s for the afternoon. Spanish Needles is providing food to the beach goers.
The lake is in the tertiary dune area; where Florida Point aka west end of Perdido Key is a secondary dunes area.

Low 30s start warmed only to the upper 50s,another clean day here in Lower Alabama aka LA.

lower 40s in AM, to upper 50s in the afternoon mostly clear with some high thin clouds. The only sighting was on the wing by 9AM.

Butterflies seen yesterday or today.

from 11:00 to 15:30. I missed getting a photo of Jeffrey Gassberg’s Ruddy Hairstreak.

Wind switched to the SE today allowing temps to get into the low 70s.

Saw in the middle garden near monks caps and other bushes.

Unusual late date. medium-small yellow butterfly with slight orange tinge, shape of sulfurs, flew up out of weedy lawn area, seen while driving slowly by. No photo.

I am still looking for the end of the White Peacock sightings at this location, and this may be the day.

With Karen, Marty (photo), Marie (photo), and Riz. Partly cloudy and then full sun; 72F; 2.5 hrs. We were thrilled to see so many Hairstreaks this late in the season. Key nectar plants: Asters.

Wind returned to the S. today pushing up the temps from upper 40s to upper 60s .Sighting are repetitive this time of year, but these are some our winter residents. .

We’ve had some night frost, so the chrysanthemums were frostbitten. The rosemary is still vigorous and bloming, with honeybees nectaring. The Clouded Sulfur was nectaring on a dandelion. The Sleepy Orange and the Checkered White were just flying around.

Finally after several days heavy overcast and light rain the sun came out and it warmed into the mid 70s; and no rain.

one of the park docents/hosts found this right after that cold front came through, and tipped us off: highlight of a rather slow outing due to that same front mentioned in previous post today.

i also think i MAY have gotten two very fast fleeting views of a Blomfild’s Beauty on the ground by the bait log, as whatever it was sped off the first two times i approached the log, not seen again after the cold front passed through, whatever it was.

Partly sunny as cold front blew in.

We had a break between two broad squall bands where the sun came for a little while.The sun popping out brought us out of the mid 60s into the low 70s before the 2nd band of rain arrived.It was enough time to do some sighting .

Sunny and upper 50s

Partly Cloudy and lower 60s

There was small break in the weather; sun came out for about 30mins.Temps AM & PM mid 60s to lower 70s.

Mid. day sun came through the high clouds between the rain showers. Little temp difference for the past couple of days. No time to check another location.

Time 9:00-10:30

Late break in the cloud cover; temps in mid 60s

55F and windy

In the heat of mid day when the temps reached the mid 50s a couple of sightings where made.

Temp in the upper 50s and windy