August 2019 Sightings

Parkwide butterfly count performed by the Pocahontas Chapter of the Virginia Master Naturalists and other members of the public

Because it was on a hillside there was a variety of habitat including rocky slopes and wet meadow. It was above 10,000 feet.

A wet meadow along a creek which flows into the Taylor River. We have found Green Comma at this location.

Sunny, 80s - topping out at 8000 ft.

Saww 2 unID’d Frits

Obs.from 8:50-5:30 with part sun and 77-85 degrees.T-storms grazed the area around 3:30 but no rain .Primary nectar sources: Joe-Pye weed, Sweet Pepperbush, & NY Ironweed. Every refuge roadside mowed this past week. No sign of Silvery Checkerspots. Second flight may be over here.

It was a perfect day for butterflying with the average temperature around 77 degrees and light wind. The Painted Ladies are on any plant that is a good nectar source.

Great time in Jack’s yard today. I am sure we saw more butterfly species and butterflies than I have recorded here. 3 species were lifers for me. I had great looks at Tawny Emperor caterpillars found on the hackberry tree, a Cloudless Sulphur ovipositing, an unknown pink colored egg on a hackberry leaf, an unknown moth caterpillar on the hackberry tree, plus a Blue-tailed skink.

Various locations.

The Ocola Skipper was the first of the year.

First of year Mournful Duskywing
California Dogface is a lifer!

Partly cloudy day in low 80’s. Lots of hummingbirds and phoebes; flowers include wild verbena and sunflowers. Identification of the Acmon bNue based on there not being any lupine flowers in area.

mostly cloudy and light drizzle 85 degrees

Fiery Skipper was the first one of the year.

Weekly survey with Della Wells, Nancy Slowik, and Karen Nickeson; 9:30 AM to 1:05 PM; scattered clouds, air temperature 73-82 F, dew point 62-66 F, wind gusts 3-8 mph from E.

I was at the parcel on the right side of Rte. 22N where the fields are.

Thanks to Karlo’s report from the other day I decided to go up to look for the hairstreaks and the Giant Swallowtails. Was here from about 8:15am to 12pm. No luck on the hairstreaks, but saw plenty of other stuff.

As with him, I had many sightings of the giants both nectaring in the fields and laying eggs on the Zanthoxyllums in the woods. I had as far as I can tell from my photos at least two females and probably two males if not more. Twice I had pairs together, once in the woods and once in the field, which I think were different pairs. All the years I’ve come up here and I never knew the giants were here, now I know why.

I probably had more individuals of the skippers, but it was hard to keep them separate, let alone id. them.

Beautiful Gulf Fritillary found in the vegetable garden on the California Zinnia’s.

Sunny & humid, 85-87 degrees. Close mowing in 2 spots greatly reduced numbers of Pearl Crescents from just one week ago. Some newly blooming c. milkweeds mowed also was where the silvery checkerspots were just a week ago. Tried for another new species in the town of Rock Hall but only another Painted Lady at the vegetable market.

Sightings made between 10:00 - 11:00 AM in a large mountain meadow off a trail in the Catskills. Partly cloudy to mostly cloudy, low 70s. At least one of the Tiger Swallowtails was a Canadian.

Partly cloudy, some sprinkles of rain..85 degrees

Started Silver Lake, to Lake Solitude, up to the Pass (9993ft), back down to Twin Lakes and then Silver Lake again.

Mid 60s and no sunshine.

12:00-13:45 under overcast skies. Low 80s

Partly cloudy, hot and humid, 90 degrees. 10:50am - 12:05pm.

Lead a tour of the Dix WMA Sleepy Orange colony today and welcomed participants from our South Jersey Butterfly Blog and from Citizens United to Protect The Maurice River organization.

An amazing day was enjoyed by everyone.

This colony began with the discovery of three individuals in 2016 (one male and two females) and a thought that maybe….This thought was supported with the discovery of host plant growing in the preserve.

In 2017 overwintering individuals were found in June and soon caterpillars. 2017 saw 33 individuals flying in the growing and safeguarded senna patch. Then in 2018 the count rose to 89 individuals. Today, with the 2019 survey, we found 152 individuals! In addition to this amazing colony of Sleepy Oranges, an even greater sized colony of Cloudless Sulphurs exists in this same area. Today, we count 298 Cloudless Sulphurs.

Both species have historically been scarce, late season vagrants and never found in large numbers. History is being re-written with this special area.

The Gulf Fritillary seemed attracted by the aroma of a dead raccoon under my deck.

I am reporting my Eastern Tiger Swallowtail’s again, they are awesome!

Unusually marked Eastern Tailed-Blue.

Sunny about 75 degrees. We hiked a couple of trails. The amphitheatre was a good spot with good nectar plants.

Beautiful Habitat!

This is a popular birdwatching site, but it also has a good variety of butterfly species that may merit more exploration.

Park by the sign on rt-22 right before St Charles Cemetery

Hobler Park is located just south of the intersection of Great Road and C.R. 518 in Skillman (Montgomery Twp.) NJ. Information on the web indicated that part of its management plan is to mow fields in such a way as to encourage butterflies to visit those areas. There was a great deal of milkweed and teasel, both out of season, but this looks to be a promising location at peak milkweed season next year. In any case, on an early morning trip (8-9:30 am) I found several butterflies, including at least one female Monarch actively laying eggs on common milkweed. The morning was pleasant 72-75 F with sun and no wind.

From 10:30 am to 1:30 pm, I walked various parts of Horseshoe Bend Park. I did not see any Gray Commas (that I could definitely confirm), but had sightings of 4 angle-wings near the Park building in front of the quonset hut that is used for storing canoes. There was great diversity of butterflies and some highlights of the day were getting a picture of a Cloudless Sulphur and a Monarch laying eggs, as well as a mating pair of Buckeyes. Temperatures were in the low to mid-80’s and sunny during the whole trip.

Sleepy Orange on prairie zinnias. Mid afternoon, highs in low 90’s. I have dill and parsley but have not gotten any Black Swallowtail caterpillars yet.

Giant Swallowtail laid eggs on a tree in my yard. It has been visiting my garden all week.

Finally! I finally saw a different swallowtail, a Giant Swallowtail!

Variable habitat with steep rocky slopes adjacent to fir forest with dirt road separating forest from river. A small creek runs downhill into the river. High altitude above 9,000 feet here below the dam.

This list includes all that I spotted from where the Moccasin Lake Road turns to gravel all the way to the north side of Mt Chauvenet along the Bears Ears Trail. I spent four days backpacking with my 10-year old from the 5th through the 8th. The butterfly highlights were several Dingy Fritillaries and a lone Mountain Fritillary near Mt. Chauvenet. Six Boloria on one trail was mighty impressive as well!

It was a good day for butterflying. The big disappointment was the part of our weekly hike that is a road at the edge of the forest, the farmer sprayed the edges. Very few butterflies were present in this area which is normally one of the best areas to see butterflies. I was out for 5.5 hours.

With Susan Hengeveld - this was only our 2nd Dainty Sulphur for northern Minnesota; seemed to be in fairly pristine condition so likely didn’t migrate TOO far!

Gorgeous Giant Swallowtail! She was on a flower right beside me! First time ever seeing a Pearl Crescent!

Variable habitat with steep rocky slopes adjacent to fir forest with dirt road separating forest from river. A small creek runs downhill into the river. High altitude above 9,000 feet here below the dam.

Many communal webs with Harris’s Checkerspot caterpillars. Weather was not ideal for butterflying with clouds, wind and only intermittent periods of sun.

The day started out with 100% cloud cover and we were seeing very few butterflies. About a hour into the survey the sun came out as did the butterflies. We were out for 3.5 hours on our weekly survey. First Cloudless Sulphur of the year

Gulf Fritillary

10:15 - 4:15 Temps on the cooler side and cloudy.

Pollard Walk; 12:21 - 3:07 p.m., partly cloudy, still winds

Thousands of tortoiseshells flying between Manzanita Lake and Bumpass Pass Parking area. Recently burned fire areas in the park have masses of ceanothus growing, perhaps promoting the large numbers of tortoiseshells.

Beautiful day with lower humidity and nice breeze. Temperature of 84 degrees at 14:00. Observed a second Silver-spotted Skipper today, as there’s usually one by certified garden #2490.

70F

Western Tiger Swallowtail on plumbago

American Snout is not a common butterfly this far north in Wisconsin. This is only the second Manitowoc County record.

9:30-4:00 Mostly sunny in the 60’s & 70’s.

My 10-year old son and I spent the day driving along Louis Lake Road and stopping whenever we thought the flower patches along the road would be rewarding for butterflies. We started in Lander and camped for the night a few miles from highway 28. This list includes all that we saw along the way. The Bramble Hairstreak was really worn as it is quite late for that species. All of the Ruddy Coppers were southwest of Sinks Canyon State Park, and the Giant Sulphurs were all found in a meadow just north of Fiddlers Lake. Otherwise the diversity was relatively uniform along the road with a few other exceptions. The Atlantis Fritillary was of the hesperis variety.

Sunny, 70s

Started at Silver Lake, then Lake Solitude, up to the Pass and down past Twin Lakes.

Surveyed entrance road and Powerline Road from the bridge north. Very hot but no rain today. Major nectar is pickerelweed, blue mistflower, Bidens alba, bull thistle, and tall elephant’s foot. 8:15 to 2:15 by EPerry & RWarner; a good time was had by all!~

Nice sunny day, looking for fritillaries with David Rawlinson and John Hibbard. A nice showing of butterflies but few frits until late afternoon. Most were the more common Coronis Fritillaries but there was at least one, possibly three, Unsilvered Fritillaries.

we seem to be having an explosion of Ediths Coppers. Every year we see them at the moffat tunnel area, this year for the first time we also saw them in boulder county caribou open space. this area is also very good for Green Commas but none were seen today. soon I expect. the weather was mostly sunny and 68F.

Species seen through out the day.

From 11am - noon, covering only 20% of the fort’s parade grounds. 80 degrees, sunny, wind less than 10mph. Many of the Buckeyes were quite dark, several of them were unusually small.

Weekly survey with Della Wells; 9:30 AM to 12:30 PM; mostly sunny, air temperature 72-81 F, dew point 52-75 F, wind gusts 4-8 mph from SSW.

Purple Loosestrife main nectar source in field and near barn Lantana, Zinnia and Butterfly bush.

Meadow Fritillary down bottom near pond area flats, all others on upper field.

4 black and 25 yellow ETS. Few Grass skippers.

Leaderless Walks - 7 participants. Warm, sunny skies, low humidity.

Just did a quick run through the fields part mainly looking for the hairstreaks. Definitely had four Giants at once and at least one other on 22 just before the parking lot headed to the refuge. Also had two other Giants north of the refuge on Rte. 22 at two sites.

American lady on a Basket of Gold plant.

We found 1 Spaulding’s Blue on the only 1 host plant we could see in the meadow at this location in 2015 (1 month earlier). We also had Widenmeyer’s Admiral at this location in late June of 2015. The Common Branded and Juba Skippers today were lifers!

Variable habitat from rocky slopes to fir trees to with creek and riverside and wet road alongside. Most days started in the 50’s and at least partially cloudy with highs around 75 if we were lucky.

Just looked around in the meadow north of the highway and west of the pass. I hadn’t been to this location in a few years and a good chunk of the meadow has been paved over for a winter parking spot for snowmobiling and cross-country skiing. The Atlantis Fritillary was of the hesperis variety as I’ve seen the darker disked variety just south of the pass in the meadows of the Sarvis Wilderness where they both fly.

Two day visit. Day 1 - sunny & 60 degrees at 9000 feet elevation. In the 70s at lower elevation. Day 2 - much cooler with 25-35 mph winds. Too cold to go to high elevation. Lower 70s at lower elevation (7000 to 8000 feet).

Sunny, 80 degrees, wind 8-12mph

Sightings made from 2:30 - 3:30. Mostly sunny, breezy, high 70s. The Cloudless Sulphur was the only sulphur we saw; unusual to see one away from the coast.

Thanks to Harry Zirlin’s directions, we were able to locate the alder near the Scarsdale train station. After staking it out for over an hour, a Harvester showed up.

70F

Seen on the NY part of the Liberty Loop Trail during a quick walk.

14:14-15:45

13:55-14:10

North Canoe Access Road 12:20-12:45

Butterflied the prairie from 0900-1140

11:50-12:15. Southern Lake Norman NABA count

Very hot and humid….100 degrees

This is the butterfly portion of a Bio Blitz conducted at the Farm Community Prairie Barrens and Savanna.

Highlights of a 1 hour visit around noon. Four Cloudless Sulphurs were seen simultaneously upon my arrival, at the small grassland. Eastern Comma was a first for me at this site; I don’t always check the many/frequent anglewings, but they were always Question Marks in the past. This one was small, and landed right in front of me for good looks. Also good numbers of Monarchs. Snout was on the trumpet vine.

Partly cloudy, temp around 83.

The Dun Skipper was a fresh male signaling a partial 2nd brood.

Sunny, 50-70s and windy. Flowers are late this year.

Elevation: 10,400 - 10590ft

Seen crossing the road just south of the hamlet line.

Combined report for past week.

Checkered White is not a common butterfly in Wisconsin. This is only the ninth one reported since 2013. This was my first Checkered White in Wisconsin since 2012!

Butterflies were flying at 58 degrees at 11 am When we started as the sun was intense. The last 30 minutes was a meadow at lower elevation as we made our way off the mountain.

Meadow frits were in a newly blooming patch of Dogbane

Partly sunny in afternoon, some breeze.

Sunny with light winds

Clear and sunny, but recent rains have left puddles. Sunflowers and bee weed blooming along with asters.

On August 11 and 12, we hiked Carson Pass and enjoyed the hundred of CA Tortoiseshells we saw flying north.
At Mt Rose, they were flying past us at a rate of 75-100 per minute for several hours in the middle of the day.
A fantastic spectacle!

Partly cloudy 80 degrees with a little wind. Certified garden #2490. Question Mark and Monarchs came to visit in the evening.

1:45-4. Mostly cloudy. 78-81 degrees, very humid.

Mid morning. Wild butterflies, not in Butterfly pavilion. Mostly attracted to butterfly bush and New England aster.