September 2014 Sightings

Have lots of monarch caterpillars munching on my milkweed plants I started in two flats and on Butterfly Weed in the garden Seen Monarchs the last three days fluttering around.

Female laying eggs on milkweed plant.

This area is managed by a timber co.; and it is swarming with hundreds of Papilio Swallowtails with large numbers of Cloudless Sulphur, and Gulf Fritillary. It was an amazing day.
Juvenal’s Duskywings were a mated pair. The identification was from the female, with its 2 spots on the ventral side of the hindwing. The interesting thing is the male was a light chocolate brown, with little to no mottling dorsal or ventral.

Male Monarch on Late Boneset

Sunshine and rain, on and off, today but we still had lots of butterflies, Clearwing Moths and bees coming in to the flowers.

Had 5 Monarchs all weekend.

Tried to repeat yesterdays sigthings, but got rained out.

This is the first Giant Swallowtail I’ve encountered in Essex County (12 miles from Manhattan) and/or in a populated area (an urban/suburban neighborhood). It came to my window flower boxes a few times about 5 feet away from me as I was drinking my morning coffee. Moved on too quickly to get a photo.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Nice variety in 45 mins on a rather hot (91) humid afternoon.

A sunny day brought lots of butterflies, Clearwing Moths and bees to the flowers in our garden.

I also saw a skipper, but am not sure of the species.

It was overcast most of the day but that didn’t stop the Monarchs from moving through the refuge. They were on Milkweed and Goldenrod flowers.

Observed in butterfly garden.

I saw my 1st Zebra Heliconian of the year as crossed the hwy.

Personal early date for this species.

from parking lot to Old Cemetery, 1:30 PM to 4:00PM

Weekly survey, with Alan Wells and Dan Albantides
71-78, Sunny
Many Appalachian Browns were fresh as in the photo. Many were worn.

There was a light rain all morning.

The Giant Swallowtail was the fourth seen this year in the last three weeks.

The sun came out this afternoon and brought in the butterflies.

Observations from Washington ditch & Jericho ditch trails between 10:40 a.m. and 5 p.m.

Observations made between 8:30 & 9:30 a.m.

Nearly 2-hour walk, 11 a.m.–1 p.m., hot & humid

Observed in butterfly garden.

This is the road that leads to the Great Dismal Swamp Headquarters.
One of the Cloudless Sulphurs was a white form female laying eggs on partridge pea.

Our fall colors are right on the edge of popping. They are not leaves but flowers; mostly goldenrod; it turns fallow fields yellow for several weeks as one species fades another will come into full bloom.

Observations made between 8:35 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.

Observations made between 11:15 a.m & 5:30 p.m. Perfect weather for butterflies. 90 & sunny

Slowing down but lots of Pearl Crescents down in the wetland.

I sighted another Funeral Duskwing today; last one was several weeks ago.

Gulf Fritillary, approx 4:15 pm 9/7/2014, in my side yard, feeding on a Senecio

I also saw 3 skippers.

All species recorded as part of the Macaulay Honors College BioBlitz. I took some pains explaining to the student participants on the Lepidoptera team how lucky they were to see Giant Swallowtail and Harvester on the same day. I’m sure I never did so in NYC before yesterday.

Observed in butterfly garden.

The storms last night beat up the flowers in our garden but that didn’t stop the butterflies visiting us today.

One-and-a-half hour walk, mid-afternoon.

One week and one violent thunderstorm later, Bronze Coppers from last week disappeared (although they sometimes “hide” in the mid-afternoon)… Eastern Tiger & Spicebush Swallowtails also gone, and not a single Monarch.

5 Harvester larvae found. A female Harvester was seen laying eggs higher up in same tree.

Beautiful morning, weather cooling in Houston. Quiet, well maintained park. Found most butterflies at park entrance and north along frontage road.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Not much time today; between the thunder storms, The mowing crews have stopped about 1/2 way down Oyster Bay Rd. The equipment is still parked where they stopped for the weekend, so they will probably finish the job this week.

69F, 69F

Garden is exploding with activity! A pollinating paradise!

The Silver-spotted Skipper 5th instar caterpillar that was collected the third week of August have begun to make chrysalises.
Below are 2 of the 3 individuals shown in their nests during preparation, midway through, and a completed chrysalis.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Periodic survey, with Jeffrey McClean
62-73, overcast

There have been very few butterflies coming through for the past two days because of the weather.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Only the 1st 2 miles and back.

Unknown Copper and Frit

Three male and one female Berry’s Skipper seen. Female larger, redder, and more skittish than the males. Berry’s Skippers and most other skippers nectaring on blue mistflower.

The swallowtail was laying eggs on several plants.

This very worn individual turned up on the butterfly bush in my side yard. I only had my phone with me, so the image quality isn’t great, but I’m glad it stayed long enough to get a few shots.

10th Street runs along side,the cities sewer treatment plant, is a good location in the cooler months.lantana and frog fruit are in bloom almost year round; along this out flow ditch.

Weekly survey with Alan Wells
68 and totally overcast

Byssus Skipper nectaring on Liatris.

One Monarch Butterfly attracted to hummingbird feeder

Blazing Star flowers were the draw in the refuge.

We haven’t had many butterflies for a couple of days but this afternoon they came in again.

Fresh Clouded Sulpurs, 2 unidentified anglewings, Sachems almost all on New York Ironweed

The entire trail to Hoover Lake (9000+ ft)

Dotted Skippers nectaring on Carphephorus and Liatris.

Funereal Duskywing - The Orange Wilderness Area Trailhead Parking Lot, The Great Swamp National Wildlife Refuge, Gillette, New Jersey, 40.705963, -74.468050
First record of this species for New Jersey!

The summer season is over for those of us here along the northern gulf coast; so now I can take some time off. I’ll be heading to the Port St Joe area to collect a meal or two of late season Bay Scallops. Last year while in that area I found the Great Southern Whites were common along the roadways.

Eastern Tailed-Blue perched on convenience store wall at 7 a.m., along with moths.

(But vertically positioned wings separated it from the other leps on the wall!)

Lots of Bidens and Thalia and a few lucky spiders.

Walked out-n-back 5.2+ miles

Copper seen at 10,300+ feet.

Observed in butterfly garden.

The butterfly landed on my son at the playground this afternoon, and stayed there (while my son walked around and even played carefully) for quite some time. Finally, I had my son carefully transfer the butterfly to a nearby tree.

We went birding at Brigantine today. The thistles and goldenrod were in full bloom with lots of butterflies on the flowers.

This female Monarch emerged from it’s Chrysalis yesterday in our garden which is a certified Monarch Waystation in Winchester VA.

Only one individual seen in the 1 hour we were in the area, flying around and perching on the ground mostly. Plant salvage happening in the area so more water than surrounding area due to dry summer. Mourning Cloak and Dorcas Copper were also seen in the area in the past week.

Monarch butterfly flew from pine tree

Observed in butterfly garden.

79F, 80F

Finally got a chance to identify this butterfly today. It’s been flitting through my yard for the past four days, but never lighting to give me a chance to get a good look and identify it. Today it decided to stop and enjoy the just-opened asters and give me a chance to get close and collect some pics. You can see from the one attached that it’s a bit tattered and scuffed up Giant Swallowtail.

I’ve been observing and chasing moths and butterflies for over 60 yrs in the Bethesda/Baltimore area and have never seen one of these here. I see its range includes this area, but it must be very rare in these parts.

I’d be curious to hear from others whether there are “hot spots” where these magnificent creatures can be seen more often in Maryland, or whether this is an unusual sighting and lucky photo op.

We’ve also had more monarch caterpillars on our orange butterfly weed out front than in the past six years, even though the number of adults has been very low again this year (fewer than a dozen sightings in our yard all summer). Attached pic of adult on butterfly weed and mature caterpillar.

There were lots of butterflies through the yard today. They were on the goldenrod, buddleia, vitex and zinnias.

This was only the third Mournful Duskywing I’ve seen this year - all in my garden.

Tarkiln Bayou State Park is just inside Fl.,even in a light rain butterflies were active.

Not as many butterflies today as yesterday but the migrations are not over.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Dryer air came with this mornings clear sky. I guess it took a while for the butterflies to shake off the dampness from yesterdays heavy rains, it was show this AM, but picked up very nicely in the afternoon with most of the days sighting.

Yesterday we began seeing monarchs drinking from wildflowers during a walk along the coast. We may have seen a dozen. We have seen a couple more today.

Monarch butterfly emerged last night. This one will be released today.

A sunny but very slow day for butterflies in our garden.

returning from Pensacola, I stopped were there was a patch of 6 different kinds of wild flowers in the right of way.

Weekly survey with Alan Wells
59 -70 bright sun
Two fresh coppers and one fresh Lady and a few fresh Pearl Crescents say the season here isn’t over yet!

Seen by Mary Collier and Valerie Freer. Relatively uncommon for our area but 5 individuals were seen this afternoon. Maybe not so uncommon after all!

Observed in butterfly garden. The Ocola Skipper was the first one of the year here.

Fewer butterflies the past few days

The migrating Gulf Fritillary have reach our coast this week; and passion vines I planted last spring are now getting some attention. Late this morning the skies cleaned after some early AM showers; I found a female hovering over the highest tendril of my purple vine.

highlights of a brief PM stop after the International Beach Cleanup; Sulphurs and Painted Lady have been quite scare this year.

1 Monarch Chrysalis, located only about 1 foot from where we found the cat earlier.

Fewer butterflies as the eves and mornings have been in the 40’s in SE Michigan. I have one last monarch chrysalis, expected to emerge very soon.

While Working on my son car; there was a steady stream of Cloudless Sulphurs, and Gulf Fritillary flying through the yard.

First time I’ve seen one of these

About 90 min. observation. Not much sun to work with. Interesting fields full of Goldenrod, Joe-Pye weed and various aster sp.

I found an area with a good number of White Peacocks this morning, and I found my 1st Byssus Skipper among the Palatka Skipper, all in the same small location.

Ocola Skipper is the first county record we know of. Observed around 4 pm in the garden next to Montclair Public Library.

A quick 1.5 hour stop to check on Leonard’s Skipper colony at this location. Great day for all skippers.

Lots and lots of Cabbage Whites and Zabulon Skippers today. There was but one elusive Viceroy who refused to have his picture taken…oh well!

migrants seen in 10 hours of observation.

I did a survey of the Oyster Bay Rd ditch to see if there was any color returning from the recent mowing. None.

perfect weather on the last day of summer

Saw one monarch in the backyard this afternoon. Also, this late comer emerged from its chrysalis this afternoon.

Very few butterflies went through our yard today but there was one beautiful Black Morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

76, 77F

seen in 3 hours, 1pm - 4 pm: migrants moving southwest.

Observed in butterfly garden.

Today was the invasion of the Orange Sulphurs…very nice!

A cold front went through late yesterday,and brought a full migration of dragonflies to the coast, and they are hungry. The smaller butterflies are getting attacked every time they take off.

Cool and windy this morning, suppressed butterfly movement in all but the most protected areas; by late morning the wind had calmed and it warmed, and they returned to their normal movements. I found a couple of Palmetto Skipper visiting Blazing Star flowers on Mobile St. today, I was fooled back in June when I found what turned out to Delaware Skippers.

2-hour, walk, 1–3 p.m., mostly sunny, beautiful day

One Hairstreak, too far away to identify species, probably a Gray.

Monarch flying north!

This is the latest date I’ve seen a Northern Pearly-eye.

includes walk around the lake and up to the “Spine”
elevation 7295-9860ft

I am checking the areas adjacent to where I have found several White Peacock, but they appear to localized as small group . There are singles being sighted several miles away at this time. The same area has produced another Palmetto Skipper sighting.

Searching for moths on the walls of this rest area, I found an Eastern Comma - wings extending vertically from the wall - instead, at about 7 a.m.

Examining the walls of this rest area for moths, I found a Silvery Checkerspot instead!

Also, several sulphurs flying in front of the facility, over the lawn.

Monarchs observed flying south over the interstate in both Indiana and Ohio.

Saw 2 Monarch on 335n and Papineau St in Laval, QC

Seen at the lake - ~9400ft

rain/snow in the forecast for the week-end

Weekly survey with Alan Wells. 68-71 Sunny.

Mostly along Gold Dust, Turkey, and River trails. Monarchs all very fresh and apparently of the Mexico-bound generation.

Good butterfly turnout on the trail after much rain. Several Cloudless Sulphurs ovipositing on Partridge Pea. Bidens was the major nectar attractant for all.

Gray is new for yard

We were birding but the butterflies were all over the goldenrod and asters.

Also saw at least 3 skippers.

This is the first Milbert’s Tortoiseshell on Long Island in 25 to 30 years.

Over cast most of the day, but I did find another Palmetto Skipper. The Mobile Street cuts through a back beach area called a trough and ridge system. The ridges are part of an ancient parallel dunes system, and are high and dry; with the troughs being wet. The ridges have what you would expect in tertiary dunes, trees, and bushes; woody plants; but in the troughs, there is whole range of wetlands are found, from salt ,freshwater marsh ,wet/dry marsh ,and some that are only occasionally wet with the corresponding vegetation. If this area was a little warmer the troughs would be filled with mangrove.

also a swallowtail

Single Monarch moving from Planter to planter filled with Lantana. Observed for about 90 minutes. Restaurant sits on the Little Sugar Creek Greenway at the Metro Center close to downtown Charlotte.

migrants moving south.

migrants moving W/SW.

Except for a 20 minute break when the sun came out it rained all day. The short break was just long enough for a few butterflies to get out.

Cloudy, 73F
over 100 orange sulphurs in fields and in the roads: Some large, some very small; some very orange, some nearly yellow; lots of white females.

Monarchs are just beginning to come through and the Painted Ladies are also moving south.