Recent sightings

68, cloudy, winds 15-20. A 17 degree drop from yesterday. Took a 10 minute stroll around 3:00. Interesting that 8 of 13 sp's were represented with one specimen. Watched an old rsp get blown to the ground from a beach plum tree and was too feeble to fly again.

[Very cool! Our 8th record of long-tailed in South Jersey this year and our 2nd from BUR.

The state-wide score at the moment: CMY 6, BUR 2, Mercer County 2. All other counties in the New Jersey: 0. jc]

Nice diversity on this summer-like afternoon. Still trying to scare up a White M hairstreak and Long-tailed skipper…

[Build a garden like yours….and they will come! jc]

Smith's Woods butterfly garden; 9:45-10:00am
3 monarch chrysalises, 3 black swallowtail caterpillars

Late in the day visit, 4:30-5:15, 92 degrees. Open field behind the soccer fields looked promising with a lot of hyssop-leaved thoroughwort.

Sachems, Variegated Fritillaries and Common Buckeyes numbers are low estimates. Each was very abundant.

I just saw this beautiful Common Buckeye - Junonia coenia - in our garden. A total of 3.

[Welcome to our newest observer/reporter, Elvira Paniza. Keep those reports coming, E.P! jc]

What another wonderful day. Sunny, 75 with 10 MPH wind. Record high number of species. Common Buckeyes everywhere in the yard. Est count over 180 which is as far as I got in counting. Counts of butterflies from 1:30 to 2PM. Finally obtained an image of the Long-tailed Skipper. Giant swallowtail back again. FOY Sleepy Orange for my yard.

Red-spotted Purple eggs and caterpillars on a ~3' small potted cherry tree. These are first I've seen here as my large cherry tree is 40 years old. Continuing Spicebush Swallowtails caterpillars and chrysalises, continuing Brazilian caterpillar and chrysalis. Lots of mating going on: Monarchs, Common Buckeyes, Fiery Skippers and Sachems. Sad to be going out of town for 4 days.

[Whew! You should rent out the place to envious butterflyers while you're gone! And charge at least three figures/day! jc]

during fall bird survey; 8:00-11:20am

Delighted to find a second cloudless chrysalis in our yard – this one anchored on a Phlox stem. Shows more red than the one we found the other day on milkweed leaf (which so far seems to be doing OK). Also a late-instar cat feeding on partridge pea (can we hope for a third chrysalis?).

Observations throughout day as I worked. I thought I finally had a clouded sk, but the f. zab said "nope." Yesterday's count had more of many species including 6 white m's, 6 gray hs and 10 fierys, but no tawny-edged sk's. Today the tawny-edges flew in the early morning and then disappeared. There is an advantage in spending a day in one place. I have had 6 qm chrysalises here this summer but none like the one in the photo. 32 species here since Saturday.

[Still more evidence that butterfly gardens in Cape May County had a spectacular day yesterday! jc]

A wonderful day in the yard. Return oF the Giant Swallowtail with pictures this time. Return of the Long-tailed Skipper but without pictures because of the GS. Hopefully, the LT will be back tomorrow. Over 115 Common Buckeyes in the yard when I stopped counting. 24 of them just on one patch of sedum. FOS in my yard Hayhurst's Scallopwing (have images that aren't great).

[Wonderful to hear you saw your GT and to see your delightful shots. Now good luck with the LT and with trying to count those buckeyes. The Dowdells had similar numbers right up the Bay from you. It sounds like a spectacular staging. jc]

Large influx of Buckeyes today. The 224 represents total number in view at 2:00 pm. Likely many (hundreds) more during the day as they seemed to be on the move today. Aaron's Skipper FOS for the yard and my latest ever for the yard.

[Will buckeye southbound migrants outnumber monarchs this year? It has happened before. The Dowdells' total here and high counts just about everywhere in South Jersey suggest it is a strong possibility. jc]

[This long list includes our 6th long-tailed for the year, our 5th sleepy orange in CMY, and our third adult Brazilian skipper. We are envious, JD! jc]

A delightful day for butterflies in our yard, including our FOY Ocolas and our first tawny emperor since 2012. Snowberry clearwing caterpillar on coral honeysuckle was the apparently less-common brown form.

It was a real surprise to have the Long-tail land in a small oak 6' away. Almost as much of a surprise to have it sit there and let me take lots of pictures. I ended up walking away from it. Most of the bugs were at the nice Liatris patch close to Rt 605.

[Nice shot! This is only our 4th long-tail reported in South Jersey in 2019 and just the second that allowed itself to be photo'd. jc]

Common Buckeyes seen all around the neighborhood this week. Two Black Swallowtail cats on Fennel today. Plenty of grass skippers now, Pecks frequent,

Worked in the garden 8 AM until 1 PM. Did 2 walks around the yard during that time. Saw a Long-tailed skipper mid morning but by the time my camera was in hand, it spooked and I didn't find again.

During botany walk, 9-11:30am

Armas & Rise Hill heard of my gardens through JC and thought they would stop by hoping to see a LT Skipper. Upon getting out of their car they saw a Giant Swallowtail nectaring on lantana and Rise Hill obtained these images. I greeted them, we introduced ourselves and I gave them a tour of the gardens. I showed them 2 Brazilian Skipper chrysalises and both Spicebush Swallowtail cats and SPSW chrysalis. The also saw a Question Mark laying eggs on the Hackberry tree. To my great disappointment, I never did get to see the GS.

[Congratulations on the continuing show at your magical garden, Beth – and also condolences on the "dip" (as birders call it). Odds are pretty good that you will get another chance at the GS today, I think! Why would it want to miss out on the ongoing party? jc]

Observations made on forays between 4- 6. Sunny, calm, 70. While making dinner, I went to the garden for parsley and discovered a Peck's sk, which is new for this property. Will Kerling used to report from a colony 11 miles to the north, and I wonder if the strong north winds on Friday brought the butterfly here. I was happy to get a photo of the rare "eyed fw with too much iridescence" form of RSP. It was good to see the sachems getting ready for the NFL's opening Sunday.

[As Jack suggests, Peck's is surprisingly hard to find in CMY while it is common in the bordering two Counties – CUM and ATL – and elsewhere in South Jersey. This is only our 10th report of Peck's in CMY in 12 years of logging. jc]

Walked the rails and adjacent field here. Late Flowering Thoroughwort the main attraction.

Obs. made from 2:15 -3:15. Photographed a female Common Checkered-Skipper. Surprised at the number of BW Skippers still flying.

Minimal nectar. Most butterflies were out in the marsh on Pickerelweed.

Obs. made from 1-1:20 Sunny, mid 70's but windy. Very dry in this part of Salem County.

Some butterfly action resumed here this morning after yesterday's dismal weather. One of the RSP's showed very faint traces of the White Admiral subspecies.

Nice to see a decent assortment of bf’s after yesterday’s rain and wind.

Incidental sightings while birding in the park. Cabbage White number is an estimate.

One Monarch heading south along the Delaware River.

The cat we found on a common milkweed leaf on Sept 3 began pupation hanging from that leaf on Sept 4. As far as we know, this is the first time we've had a chrysalis of cloudless sulphur in our yard.

Observation made after 5. This has been a good year throughout SJ for red-spotted purple. My property crushed its record for this species yesterday. My seven beach plum trees are the main attraction.

A brief stop at the Zinnia garden here produced my FOY Ocola.

[Good find, Cynthia! Your is only our 3rd report of the species this year. North Jersey had a series of reports from the same powerline in New Providence (Union County) in mid-August –perhaps a single individual; and that's been it so far this year. jc]

Little Yellow in the same spot in which I saw it on Aug. 26 (intersection of Bike Path and the RR tracks).

This White Admiral-type was photographed by Sue Bennett Canale today at Oak Pond in Winslow WMA. I don't have a lot of experience with this subspecies, but this one looks like it might be a cross. Interested what others think. Was cavorting with 3 Red-spotted Purples…

[Exciting find and photo! This is only our second sightings log report ever of this northern form of the red-spotted purple/white admiral complex. And it is our first photographed. Tom Bailey found our only other last year on June 30 in Palmyra Cove. It is hard to find even in North Jersey where, like here, red-spotted is common.

[Vince points out correctly that there is a good chance this individual is not a "pure" white admiral. The two forms overlap over a large area in the northeastern US (from northern NJ to Canada) and mate w/each other so regularly that patterns show a wide mix of colors on many individuals. The RSP's more southern geographical range is thought to be limited (roughly) to the range of the pipevine swallowtail whose wing pattern it mimics – for protection from birds that have learned not to eat the poisonous swallowtail. jc]

[Excellent find, Claire! This is only our 2nd report for South Jersey this year, the 4th in the state in 2019, and only the 5th record ever of this species for Burlington County on our log. It's also the first in BUR in three years – dating back to your last find of long-tail in your yard on 9-12-16. Congratulations! jc]

Butterfly Garden
2-2:30

2 Monarch chrysalises, 2 tiger swallowtail chrysalises, 1 black swallowtail chrysalis. 6 monarch cats

5:15- 5:40. Arrived home thinking it likely I would see Am. Coppers and saw 2. The 6 beach plum trees and the peach tree brought in a record number of red-spotted purples for this yard. The last new bug of the day was a Red-banded hs, which I had not thought about all day. Total number of species for the day was 41.

[Thank you, Jack, for the impressive one-man one-day-in-September survey of the Cape May peninsula. jc]

2:45- 4:45. Sunny and 80. The field Brian Johnson referred in our report of 8/8 has faded; however, the places with bloom were loaded with bflies. The tawny emperor is a new one for me at this location.

2:20- 2:25. Sun came out again.

1:00- 2:15. After all sun at LT, the Point was all cloud which definitely slowed things down.

10:00- 12:15, sunny and 70's. First stop on a day-long scouting trip for upcoming NNJ NABA invasion in mid-September.

I rarely see Hackberry Emperors nectaring on flowers. I have observed Tawny Emperors more often on flowers. Found this H.Emperor tonight on Buddleia.

[Interesting observation, Dave. You have a "nose" for that species, it seems: 12 of our 16 finds of hackberry emp since Aug 1 have been by you. Chris H and Jennifer B are tied for 2nd with two finds each – and a lot of us ;-) are still hoping for our first of the year. jc]

Pale female cloudless ovipositing on partridge pea.

Two cloudless cats found, one of partridge pea; other a late instar on common milkweed. We are hoping it is searching for a place to pupate. We have never found a chrysalis here.

Also half a dozen monarch cats, all mid to late instars.

[Exciting find, Jackie! – our first long-tailed skipper of 2019. The only other reports in the state this year were two of single individuals (same individual?) in Mercer Meadows (Mercer Co) 8/9/19 and 8/11/19. Let's hope a few more are coming. jc]

Incidental sightings. All were northbound.

12-1:30, windy but 84 degrees. Nectar that was out of the wind would have a number of bugs.

Light rain prior to starting out, 10:30-11:45. 73 degrees; Hackberry emperor, RS purple, and pecks all on my car when I returned–salts on car– from earlier rain?

A brief visit from 3:45-4:15. Observed a Clouded Sulphur ovipositing on red clover.

One of today's E.tigers was a dark form female.