October 2021 Sightings

Weather was clear, 75-81°, 6mph winds

R. Spink, P. Dehnke, D. Dunlap

Weather was clear, 70-75°, calm winds

R. Spink, P. Dehnke, D. Dunlap

85 degrees, sunny. We used binoculars to spot since our time was limited.

Michael O’Brien shared on Facebook: “Last night’s roosting Monarchs departed across Delaware Bay this morning (Oct. 1, 2021), mainly between ~7:30 and 8:45 am. Forecast NW winds, which would have likely held Monarchs here a little longer, turned out to be light out of the north this morning, a perfect tail wind to help Monarchs across the bay. From a series of one minute counts, I extrapolated that I saw at least 25,000-30,000 Monarchs strike out across Delaware Bay this morning - the largest Monarch migration event I have seen here since 2010,” as shared by Michael O’Brien on Facebook (THANK YOU Michael for putting a number to this amazing Monarch movement). These are my pictures from this amazing sight.

Partly sunny this morning and 78 degrees. Only had a few butterflies visit then rain started, I didn’t see any others.

12th Annual Death by Skipper event. 9 a.m.-3 p.m. Weather: 76°-88°, sunny to partly cloudy, winds 13-16 mph. Nectar: pickerelweed, liatris, carphephorus, Spanish needles, FL Elephants Foot. Participants: LCooper, JCrosby, NCrosby, SFarnsworth, AGrimm, LWilliams.

Mid afternoon, around 75 F. Sunny, rain earlier in the week.

Today was a great day in the yard. The Monarch’s started early AM going setting down for some nectar and continuing on their way. (Est count) There were a lot of eyes looking at for butterflies with 15 visitors during the day. A mint fresh Hayhurst’s Scallopwing which is both the FOY 2021 and my latest record ever for the yard. Also, a very worn Horace’s Duskywing was found, along 3 Long-tailed Skippers; one with no tails, then 1 tail and 2 tails. 2 Sleepy Orange butterflies eclosed. Ocola Skippers are going crazy in the yard. I believe the count is my highest count of Ocola skippers here ever. Sachem count also estimated

This is the last report from the property as we’re moving back to Virginia. It’s been great to watch this garden develop since 2018. Temps are cooling off but still plenty blooming! Butterflies casually observed while packing.

6th Annual Bullied by Skippers trip. 9 a.m.-4:30 p.m., sun all day, winds 4-13 mph. Nectar: liatris, carphephorus, Rayless sunflower, duck potato, morning glory, FL elephants foot. Participants: CBlais, LCooper, JCrosby, NCrosby, ADeWitt, BDeWitt, SFarnsworth, AGrimm, BLloyd, DMcElveen, SMcLeod, EPerry, NPrine, RWarner, LWilliams.

Sunny, 80 degrees. First Ocola Skipper of the year!

worn Pipevine Swallowtail

(23-383) Warm and sunny. Long-tailed Skippers were on the move and mostly nectaring at white crownbeard.

85 degrees sunny. This is a swampy area adjacent to a drive to a Gas Station, we hoped for a Byssus and a Dion.

Sunny and 78 degrees.

This was a sunny day 58F. I didn’t really expect to see much due to recent freezing temps. Much to my surprise, i found a Marine Blue. It is my first sighting of a Marine Blue. I have never seen one on this transect. They are uncommon to Boulder, CO at lower elevations and as far as I know not previously seen in the mountains. I have a beautiful photo but am unable to attach it due to an upgrade change of some sort that my old computer can’t work with.

72 degrees partly cloudy this am then it became mostly sunny and 72 degrees. Not many butterflies at all.

(31-238) Warm & sunny. We were in the field from 9 to 1. Liatris, rayless sunflower & Florida paintbrush were in bloom and were key nectar sources.

Overcasy day with temp of 73 on afternoon. One male Monarch was released after being in a cage as chrysalis. There is one remaining pupa

Atala perched around various spots in my backyard this morning….

Partly to mostly sunny 73 to 78 degrees

Surveyed alone from 9:30 to 4:30. Major fields of nectar are on West Loop near Crossroad and also on the end of Cemetery Road just before the cemetery. I drove the entire loop minus Crossroad; the loop is passable now at Yolk Branch. Many cloudywings/duskywings eluded proper ID and were not included. A good time was had by me! EP

Partly to mostly sunny 73 to 78 degrees

Between intermiddent rain showers we found a few butterflies. Georgia Satyr image was taken in the rain. In addition to adults we saw a dozen or so Common Buckeye caterpillars on False Foxglove.

Chilly, barely into the 60’s. Butterflies were in sheltered areas low down, mostly in the aster patches.

Found my first Hayhurst’s Scallopwing caterpillar on Lamb Quarters today. I have looked many times in the past.

seen from the deck of the Cross-Sound Ferry

I took some family out for a quick look at the wildflowers and even though cloudy and rain threatening we saw a few butterflies, including three FOS female Meske’s Skippers (been seeing the males for a couple weeks already).

Beautiful day and 83 degrees!

Mostly cloudy, slight SW airflow, sprinkles, with a little sun at times and a high of 74

Partly Cloudy, light breeze, mid-70s. Decent late-season numbers. Great day for the Pieridae family, with numerous Cloudless Sulphur and Sleepy Orange caterpillars and adults still observed. Monarchs seem to have mostly migrated out…

Not many butterflies around on this beautiful, overcast day. Lots of nectar sources available, will have to return again soon. With B.DeWitt & K.Spencer

The Eufala is a new butterfly in my garden. These butterflies were present on 10 Oct also. On the 10th, two of us watched the Eufala moving around a bed of zinnias and observed the quiver that happens some of the times right after landing.

Members of the Sarasota Butterfly Club and Peace River Butterfly Society conducted a butterfly count at the park with assistance from park personnel. Except for Sleepy Orange, all photos are by Mike Weisensee.

Partly cloudy 78 to 86 degrees

80 degrees, sunny.

82 degrees sunny.

Nectar extremely limited so butterflies were concentrated on the few blooms left.

My first Common Checkered-Skippers since 2012 in Wisconsin, and tied with the most I have ever seen in one day!

Weather was mostly cloudy, 75°, 8-12mph winds

R. Spink, P. Dehnke

1:15-4:30 p.m. Weather: 85°-82°, winds 4-6 mph, mostly cloudy with intermittent sun & isolated showers. Checked areas on West Loop and Crossroad. Nectar: liatris, carphephorus, Spanish needles, Phoebanthus. LCooper, EPerry

8:45 a.m.-12:15 p.m. Weather: 73°-85°, winds 5-7 mph, mostly sunny. Nectar: liatris, carphephorus, Spanish needles, lantana. LCooper, EPerry. Only surveyed Road 6 intersection with Road 7 in area burned last spring, brief stop in waste area near entrance.

The pair of Fiery Skippers in the photos decided to mate on a window of my home. It certainly offered an interesting perspective.
Up till this date I normally had at least 3 Gulf Fritillaries. Today, I found wings of at least one individual, probably captured by a praying mantis.

80 degrees, mostly sunny. Southern Dogface and Common Buckeye were common in areas with small planted pines and lots of wildflowers. Last year during this time period we had more butterflies with lots of swallowtails on the liatris in the powerline cut.

On and off showers

Sunny 74 to 87 degrees with some wind this morning.

Light wind, 50’s to low 60’s. Chamisa and asters blooming but sunflowers have mostly stopped. Arroyo dry.

80-85 degrees mostly sunny. light breeze. 10am - 3pm

The highlight of this trip was photographing the Pearly-eye. We have both Southern and Creole here, but they are seldom seen. The thick vegetation makes is difficult to walk around in the swampy areas and there are plenty of Cottonmouths.

This worn Southern had linear eyespot pupils, a curved FW eyespot row, a FW pm line that came to a point and orange antennal clubs.

1100-1600, 75-84F, SE 4-8MPH, Cloud Cover 19-63%, Georgia Coastal Plain, swamps, fields, pines. 31.471208066927904, -84.38440171730676

Mostly cloudy, high of 68, breezy from ENE

Rain this morning then cloudy this afternoon 69 to 74 degrees

(8-29) A few butterflies around the garden and along the trails. Lots of migrating warblers.

Sunny 59 to 79 degrees. I have an unknown skipper that’s rust in color, then when it’s wings are open (from top view) they are outlined with dark brown or black. Also has the same dark color half-striped in the middle of each one of its wings (top view).

walking along the power lines

Mostly Sunny 80-84 degrees 1-5 pm. Discovered a new species of Carphephorus! Also had liatris, summer farewell, golden aster, elephant’s foot, coreoposis and false foxglove among other nectar plants.

Manmade ponds near Rio Grande. Sunny, Temps in 60s to 70s.

An Emerald Aguna I was extremely fortunate to come across in the National Butterfly Center gardens recently. It flew off shortly after I took several shots of it and was never seen again.

(15-74) Sunny skies and lots to see. The Silver-banded Hairstreak was not very cooperative.

Still lots of butterflies in portions of San Diego County

The female Soldier was a rare find.

After 5 days of gray cloudy and misty weather it was good to have some sun in the afternoon. About 30 Black Swallowtail caterpillars on rue, Monarch caterpillars on common milkweed, Monarch eggs on tropical milkweed, Question Mark eggs and caterpillars on hackberry. Also, Cloudless Sulphur caterpillar found on the senna along with a sleepy orange chrysalis. Spicebush Swallowtail chrysalis found a few days ago on a pot & given to KT to overwinter along with a Black Swallowtail chrysalis found on the lamb’s quarter that I had cut down. Hayhurst’s Scallopwing caterpillar continues. Low estimate on Sachems.

Rain on 10-13-21 no sign of butterflies. Today some rain and cloudy 69 to 73 degrees

First Fiery Skipper of the year.

Partly cloudy, light breeze, low to mid-70s. First day with sun in almost a week! Nectar sources becoming more scarce…

This park is on the border of Harris County and Brazoria County. Time: 11:10am-1:40pm. Partly cloudy. Temperature 87-92 degrees. A ground trailing vine patch of Hairypod Cowpea was present; magnet for the Long-tailed Skipper. Witnessed a female Long-tailed Skipper ovipositing.

The spectacular liatris bloom is winding down, but still plenty to see! With B.DeWitt, S.Kelly, & M. Heinemen

Warm day, high 70s, plenty of butterflies enjoying the asters at Long Ridge.

Obs. made from 11:30 am to 5 pm. Mostly Sunny with a high temp of 81 and light E or ENE winds. Primary nectar sources at this point in the season were Zinnias, Buddleia, various asters including Tatarian & New England. None of the abundant Lantanas were in bloom. An Ocola Skipper was attempting to oviposit on New England Aster.

Fall flowers still going strong. Field Mustard coming back well, so this is looking good again for the Queen butterflies and any over-wintering Monarchs.

0945-1345, 4 hours, 71-85F, Wind variable 2-4MPH, Cloud Cover 17-27%, Georgia Coastal Plain, Mud Creek-Seven Bridges (gravel) Road through swamps, fields and pines. 31.470410324789466, -84.3844446228316

Wonderful warm sunny day in the yard with great diversity of butterflies. My FOY Red-spotted Purple seen in the yard which is species 39 for 2021. Still hoping for another species or two to finish out the year. Monarchs came early and flew through all day with about 30 roosting here tonight. I’d estimate >100 Monarchs flew through today and stopped to nectar. Filmed a Monarch caterpillar coming out of it’s egg. So cool to actually watch through the macro lens of my camera. Clouds of skippers with a low estimate count of 175 for sachem skippers.

Summer-like: sunny and mid 70s, lots of goldenrod in bloom.

10 species is pretty good for this time of year in these parts

Wildflower walks for the Friends group. 9:30-11:30 a.m. & 1-3 p.m. Weather: 74°-91°, light winds & sun all day. Main focus was not on butterflies so not many photos. Very limited area covered.

10-15-21 rain again no sign of butterflies. Today sunny 59 - 68 degrees.

Monarchs and ladies on the Buddleias at the entrance gate.

Today 10-18-21 sunny 55 - 76 degrees. I still have aster, a few zinnias, cleome and geranium left.

Cold start to the day 55F light winds

In spite of the winds the yard is continuing to have Monarchs coming through the yard and nectaring and then moving down the dunes nectaring on seaside goldenrod. This American Lady caterpillar walked across the sidewalk in front of me looking for a place to pupate. I watched a good number of AL eggs laid on pussytoes earlier this week.

Mostly sunny 55 - 75 degrees

Sunny skies, breezy, mild temperatures

It’s been cool lately, a slight touch of frost last night, and afternoons barely reaching 70.

Casual observations while visiting the tourist and shopping areas. As to be expected on this warm day Orange & Clouded Sulphurs as well as Cabbage Whites were fairly common in various farm fields.Most of the reported butterflies were found in some annual flower beds in King’s Homestead in Ronks.

Monarch roost spot.

Sunny 58 - 82 degrees

Monarch roost this afternoon about 5PM estimated 400 Monarchs

Monarch roost this AM estimated 1500 monarchs

Sunny, warmer todays with light wind. Another wonderful butterfly day with Kathy Horn, CMBO naturalist & I tagging over 50 Monarchs with many more coming through the yard. I’d estimate at least 150 Monarchs came through today. 2 Long-tailed Skippers -tailless and 2 tails. But Ocola Skippers ruled the day with 28 counted between the front and back gardens. Large numbers of Sachems continue.

Sunny clear afternoon. A late comer Monarch visited Mexican sunflowers in Monarch Waystation #2490. Also a Clouded Sulphur. It is the latest ever in observing any Monarch.

A few species seen on Buddleia outside of work early this afternoon. Unseasonably warm; upper 70s, sunny, breezy.

(26-388) Warm and sunny.

Temps in low 70’s and sunny

(15-94) Sunny and in the low 80s. Slender blazing star and Florida paintbrush had pretty much bloomed out within the flatwoods.

Wandered around the park from 8:00am - 2:00pm, including the Hammock Trail & some of the Prairie Loop Trail, with T.Hodges & K.Spencer. Everywhere you look, there are Ocola Skippers!

I have three main nectar sources in abundance here now; Butterfly bush, Lantana, and Verbena bonariensis, with all doing well at this time.

The community gardens at Floyd Bennett Field were fairly productive this morning between 10:30 - 12 PM. Sunny and mild, around 70.

Cloudy with a high of 57 degrees

Gold-spotted Aguna that was first spotted by National Butterfly Center member Cecil “Woody” Wingfield in the gardens directly in front of the NBC’s visitors’ pavilion. He alerted me to it which made it possible for me to get these photos.

Observed Dorantes Longtail on a patch of wild sunflower at my home address. The butterfly was first photographed at 3:41 pm. Last photograph taken at 6:01 pm. The butterfly instantly caught my eye with the tail. This was a new species for the yard and looking at the Swiftguide/Glassberg, appears to be very rare in West Texas. I am submitting this observation to document the presence of this species in Alpine, TX.
Additional photos can be provided if needed.

82 degrees, sunny. Small field of small pine trees with massive displays of yellow composite. Georgia Satyrs never slowed down for a photo!

Sunny and 58 degrees (below normal today).

82 degrees, sunny but only filtered sun here due to large pines in adjacent field. We saw the carphephorus blooming & had to stop! Once on site we found a fabulous aster, flat-topped goldenrod, elephant’s foot & more. A friend went an hour later and told us carphephorus name was changed to Trilisa paniculata. Today she photographed Little Metalmark oviposting on this plant which is in the same genus as Trilisa odoratissima (Vanilla-Leaf) which we have in our neighborhood which Little Metalmark uses for a host plant. Gulf Fritillary was photographed on Trilisa paniculata.

82 degrees, sunny. Trilisa paniculata, asters, elephant’s foot and flat-topped goldenrod were the primary nectar sources. Gulf Fritillary photographed on Trilisa paniculata.

Thanks to Karlo Mirth for posting and Steve Rosenthal for pushing me, I was able to locate an Ocola Skipper at the community gardens today. That put me at 100 species for my New York big year. Steve Walter and Steve Rosenthal were there to help me celebrate my accomplishment. Needless to say it was a very good day!

Full sun, high of 65 degrees with a light breeze

An aberrant Queen I came across while scouting locations for the upcoming 25th Annual Texas Butterfly Festival. I was hoping to get open-winged shots but it flew off before I could get any other photos. I did see a lot of white on the upper side of the wings as it flew off however. I went back to the same location twice today, in hopes that it would return, but no such luck.

Cleared timberland with several acres of wildflowers including lots of liatris.

83 degrees midafternoon. Only the wetlands area for about 3 miles had wildflowers due to recent drought conditions.

83 degrees, sunny but 85% shade on the wildflowers from Pine Trees in adjacent field. We saw 6-8 Little Metalmark here at this location yesterday. Today we arrived earlier. The flowers were in about an 8 foot strip so we walked on each side. As the bahaya grass adjacent to the road came in full sun we could hardly believe our eyes as small groups of 3-5 popped out of the grass! Eventually they came over to nectar and were harder to spot in the sun/shade mix. The ‘meadow’ only extended 250 yards or so mostly between two powerpoles. The metalmarks nectared on numerous different sources but never on the host plant Trilisa paniculata (Carphephorus paniculatus). With binoculars we watched two crawl around on the rosettes of next years plants and watched them ovipost!