July 2014 Sightings

Photographed a female Desert Checkered-Skipper laying eggs on Sida in our yard.

This was my last stop out east before driving back to Iowa. Was hoping to see my first Diana, but no luck.

Mixed grass prairie with much moisture and the grasses are tall.
Bull thistle was in full bloom attracting the skippers.

found three more Monarch caterpillars in my milkweed plants. Sorry to report one of the first two I found with an “assassin beetle” feasting.

Not previously recorded in Chippewa County

This was the 24th year for this count. It was a great day for hairstreaks and Two-spotted Skippers, scoring a hairstreak “slam” with all 6 resident species for the county. Acadian Hairstreak, Great Spangled Fritillary, Northern Crescent, Mourning Cloak, Eyed Brown and Monarch have been seen on each of the 24 counts.

From 11-1:30 pm, hairstreak activity was steady on the way in, and haywire on the way out…individuals swirling all around the main trail & bordering oak woods. All 20 or so seen through binoculars were Edwards except for one coral.

In spite of the vast amount of native thistle, milkweed and clover in bloom, only 1 skipper seen

First Hoary Edge at this site in at least 7-8 years.

1 unID’d Wood Nymph
There were other Frits flying as well.

Most of butterflies were seen in low wet depression where water collects about .8 miles north on trail.

Reakirt’s Blue was feeding at pink clover in pesticide free lawn of suburban home near county open spaces. Other small butterflies and honeybees also visiting the clover flowers. Sunny Day. Light ocean breezes.

Notable for their absence were Monarchs.

Zebra Swallowtail numbers nectaring were awesome.
Even non-butterfliers were noticing and snapping photos!
Great Spangled Fritillary uncommon here.
My first Buckeyes of the year!

part of the Northern Westchester Count; One of the very few times I’ve seen a butterfly nectaring at butter-and-eggs.

Coral Hairstreaks are almost gone from Westchester County, these were the only ones seen on the Count

part of the Northern Westchester Count. I went looking for a Question Mark at 6 pm and found this butterfly, which I thought was a Question Mark because it was extremely large and flew strongly. But, once it landed, it seemed to lack the characteristic horizontal black bar so I thought that it was a giant Eastern Comma. A closer look shows a faint horizontal bar and other Question Mark features. Go with GISS!

My sightings over 3+ hours, as 1 of about 180 participants. Ample numbers of Regals; about 7 Great Spangled for each Regal. Overall not as much diversity as Steve Glynn’s post from one year ago. Others reported single sightings of Baltimore Checkerspot and Gray Hairstreak. I don’t think anybody had Monarch(s).

Part of the Wekiva NABA butterfly count. 8:45 am - 4:30 pm weather: 83 to 91 degrees. Tom Palmer, Linda Cooper
Lots of nectar sources at SSF but not many butterflies.
This portion of the count is in both Seminole and Lake Counties.

Part of Fourth of July Northern Westchester Count. Michael Diederich (MD) reported 26 species that day so I will not repeat his species here. Our group had 39 species. MD had Wild Indigo DW, which we missed and we had the 14 species listed here so a total of 40 species were recorded from Pound Ridge this day. My numbers are not the officuial tally which was kept by Rick Cech.

This area continues to be compromised by invasive species such as Alianthus. Common Milkweed is being crowded out. The wet meadow just south of the RR tracks is also becoming overgrown. The swamp milkweed here is becoming harder to find. Still can be very productive for butterflies as this list bears out.

Observations made after 5 p.m.

Spotted Monarch butterfly fluttering around my milkweed plants.

Started around 4 pm with partly cloudy skies and only spend ~1 hour looking. Striped and Hickory Hairstreaks on common milkweed on edge of woods

Northern Metalmarks all fresh and beautiful

Four or so at a time now. Frequent visits to Gregg’s Mistflower.

Taking a turn at the bee balm.

9:45 a.m.-3:00 p.m., 33 species in varied habitats along mostly unpaved road at the edge of the Pocono Plateau; highlights were excellent numbers of hairstreaks (generally on common milkweed), good counts of sedge skippers, and a pair of Horace’s Duskywings (new for me for site)

3 hours of searching, overcast and 86 degrees.

from 11:00 to 15:00, cloudy

Seen two Monarch Butterflies feasting on my milkweed and watched one lay about a dozen eggs. Found two eggs easily.

We see these frequently in our backyard, especially since we grow their host plant, the corky stemmed passionvine.

Count observed higher than average number of Monarchs, after having none last year! Meadow Fritillaries were the most numerous ever recorded in the 21 year count’s history, with 2 of them observed in 2 places other than site where they are usually seen.

My second visit ever to this wonderful sanctuary. 9:30-11 am. I wish I had more time exploring. I did not enough time to visit the wet areas. Hobomok Skipper was Pocahontas form female. There were probably more Hoary Edge than I reported. I also saw a large satyr in flight in the woods (Appalachian/Eyed Brown type). No sulphurs or Monarch.

We were also joined for part of the time by Alice Koster, Deedee Burnside, and Fred Weber. We found a number of highly productive stands of Common Milkweed, each with Banded Hairstreaks nectaring well into the late afternoon. Observations made between Middle Rd. & Upper Rd.

The Monarch sighting was communicated to us by others. Many Regals enjoyed on today’s tour including a mated pair.

We see these frequently in our garden, especially since we grow their host plant, the corky stemmed passionvine.

NABA butterfly count. B Cooper, L Cooper, D Cutler, M Cutler, D Dixon, A Edwards, S Farnsworth, D Galloway, M Kanyuh, J Maycan, P Miller, L Rhodes, D Rhodes, T Palmer. 9 am - 4 pm.

Flying in backyard garden on June 27.

One Monarch feeding on milkweed flowers.

First Monarch Butterfly 2014

I planted an Aristolochia species three years ago in my garden. I was excited to see Pipevine swallowtail caterpillars chewing on the leaves yesterday. >10 caterpillars

Weekly survey. With Alan Wells and Dan Albantides
78, overcast with some sun
Part of the Fourth of July NABA count

Periodic Survey. With Alan Wells and Tom Winner
76, overcast
Part of the Fourth of July NABA count
Image is of Appalachian Brown laying eggs on grass in wetlands

NABA butterfly count includes Arnold’s Butterfly Haven, roads to Lake Okeechobee and along north side of lakeshore for short distance. 9 am - 2:30 pm. S Arnold, B Cooper, L Cooper, D Cutler, M Cutler, A Edwards, D Edwards, L Edwards, S Farnsworth, B Grow.

Our Sub-sector of the July 4 butterfly count.

94 degrees, full sun, gentle breeze. Park has almost no flowers, some large trees, and dense plant life on the periphery. Low human traffic. Would not be considered a place to search for butterflies. 90 minutes exploring.

Found a sixth Monarch Caterpillar today. 4 of the first five I believe went into chrysalis stage.

This Baltimore stopped by several times feasting on my Shasta Daisies and Milkweed. Alas, no Monarchs yet.

It was a cool day…in the low 60’s

Seems I have 2 or 3 Monarch’s hanging around my garden.

Great Spangled Fritillary nectaring on the coneflowers in my front garden.

More than ten years after planting Dutchman’s pipe, I finally spotted at least twenty Pipevine Swallowtail caterpillars busily munching on it.

found these two beauties with the help of John Lampkin

Stops at Murdock Mt, Christmas Meadow, Bald Mt lower trail, and Yellow Pine Campground

Many unidentified Sulphers

overcast and in the 70’s

unidentified Sulphers and Whites

Warm day after a series of cold wet days

Wild Indigo larva found on Crown Vetch.
Cabbage White larva found on Broccoli.

With John Lampkin 76-80 - sun and clouds

Saw a few lesser and greater Frits but they were flying

Most species were seen along the power line area, accessed at the end of the Woodland Pool trail. Area had plenty of nectar plants and wet depressions.

Seems there are two Monarchs hanging around my Way-station. Eggs from 4 -5 days ago hatch and found one of the little guys munching.

First Monarch at this location for 2014.

Weekly survey. With Alan Wells
68-76, Bright sun

Phoebus was found at the top (i.e., end of trail)

These sightings were made along Rt487 and in the “Hayfields” section of Rickett’s Glen S.P.

Last year’s highly productive milkweed field mowed to stubble recently.

Very productive small stands of Common Milkweed

cloudy and cool

with Jane Scott, Diane Lafferty, Alice Permenter, Meg Cooper, Lynne Moses, and Chuck Gramling; but my sightings only

This is one of the outside teams for the Highlands Hammock NABA count. 9 am - 5 pm. 79 to 94 degrees, sun all day. Buck and Linda Cooper

Scouting for NABA count

Sunny, 91, humid. Small unkept park with dense forestry. I noticed some yellows, swallowtails, and skippers but they were not cooperative for identification.

We had our first ever day of 5 Satyrium hairstreaks (total of 112 individual hairstreaks). We saw 11 grass skipper species including a 2nd county record for Two-spotted (we found the first on last’s year’s count) - the farthest northwestern sighting of the species in Minnesota. Helping John & Marlene Weber on the Bemidji Butterfly Count. —Jim & Susan Hengeveld

mix of sun and clouds

Rogers Road field is across the street from the planted prairie at the Old Rugby field. The Little Yellow must have crossed the street to nectar on some clover.

The majority of the field was killed off this spring and planted with a prairie habitat. Partridge Pea was one of the plants and it is doing nicely. The Little Yellows migrated up from the South and have found it!

Part of NABA count for the area.

First time for me to see Giant Swallowtails in Canada; but interestingly, no other Swallowtails…
Just a solitary Monarch, and no Vanessa species…
One Duskywing; couldn’t identify to species.

11:30-11:45

12:00-12:30

Nice to see a strong population of common wood nymph. They’ve apparently been extirpated during my lifetime in my area of S.E. Pennsylvania.

Also 4 Hummingbird Clearwing moths

No Monarch here, but did see a Monarch previously at Point Pelee National Park in far southern Ontario.

Funny, I’ve seen Monarchs twice over the past week-and-a-half — on the Caribbean island of St. Maarten/St. Martin (July 11) - and then at Point Pelee; have yet to see one in the U.S.!

One dark form Common Wood-Nymph.

New broods of Sulphurs and Pecks skippers are emerging

The Garita Skipperling was 12 mi. north of Sun Valley, the rest were found in the immediate vicinity of Galena Pass.

We’re used to seeing smaller swallowtails, so this one caught my eye from the kitchen window. It’s pretty breezy, but this Giant Swallowtail was persistent about tapping the purple coneflowers, sharing with half a dozen bumble bees.

The first I have ever seen here in Hunterdon County, or in my life. Absolutely made my day!

Only one ragged male came low enough to photograph up close. The females never dropped below 30 ft.

warm and humid, from 3 p.m. to 4 p.m.

One male visiting the coneflowers with about ten bumblebees. He’s looking a little raggedy.

The Black Swallowtail hatched from an egg on my dill plant. There are 4 more caterpillars ready to go soon too!

This is part of the Walk in Water NABA butterfly count. Our regular territory Lake Kissimmee State Park was flooded off the main road. Walk in Water was roadsides, citrus groves, neighborhoods, state forest. 9 am - 4 pm. 83-94 degrees. Buck Cooper, Linda Cooper, Cole Fredricks. The image is an almost unmarked male Sachem.

Sunny with a little breeze, high in the upper 70s. Working in the yard, so sightings were spread out through the day. Butterflies and bumble bees on the purple coneflowers. These are the ones that landed when I happened to see them.

We planted a hackberry tree in our yard a few years ago and have finally been rewarded with the sighting of a snout!

My wife, Sharon, quickly got this shot with her cell phone. The butterfly landed very briefly on our hydrangea bush.

Dry from long term drought.