Recent sightings

Obs. made around 3:45 in the fields surrounding the former butterfly garden. It seems that the property owners hired "landscapers to trim in the garden". The garden was "trimmed" to the ground. The recent summer heat and dry conditions have eliminated most of the nectar in the surrounding field.

Obs. made from 11:55 to 2, 78-81 sunny NW8-14. Four of five azures were on Devil's walkingstick.

FOY for this garden Hackberry Emperor & Dun Skipper.

Sunny, 80 degrees. [FOY Meadow Fritillary and the first White M Hairstreak in Salem County this year - TB].

Observation: 9.45 - 11.15. Sunny, temps in the upper 70’s. Common Checkered Skipper was my FOY sighting.

Looks like migration has started!!

Today was the first time in over a week that there were more than 15 bflys and more than 9 species present. I am at a loss as to why bfly numbers have dramatically crashed around here this year.

Partly sunny, 77 degrees. ESE winds coming off a night of NW. 60% humidity.

It was a good day for butterflies, saw 33 species in the span of 6 hours leading tours for Revrail Co. Located several dogfighting groups of Red-banded Hairstreaks stop various trees throughout the length of the tracks. Also saw my first White M of the autumn season nectaring on late boneset.

Cloudless sulphur male went to senna then rested under a milkweed leaf—new for season. Fresh gray hairstreak on clethra. Zabulon a female. 3 early instar Spicebush cats. One black ST cat on rue. A couple monarch cats and more eggs.

Sightings from 2:15-3:45. The Verbena stricta attracted the most butterflies though many were rotating between the Anise hyssop, butterfly weed, Phlox paniculata and purple cone flower. The Monarch may have been laying eggs on the Swamp milkweed and Whorled milkweed. The Pollinator Garden sign is up!

Another high count on SBS. Grass skipper numbers considerably down from last year at this time.

9:00-10:30 am. Purple loosestrife was the main flower that all the butterflies were nectaring on. A very cooperative clearwing sphinx moth let me photograph it.

11:30am quick stop at the butterfly garden. Amazingly, a black swallowtail had just emerged from its chrysalis. A monarch was laying eggs on the common milkweed. The only caterpillars seen were tons of milkweed tussock moths.

Most butterflies found in the later afternoon. There were also a few Snowberry Clearwing moths coming to the New York Ironweed.

Spicebush Swallowtails have been abundant here over the past couple of weeks (3-5 per outing).

Observation: 10.30 - 11.30. No access to the bridges. The pond area was totally flooded, after a huge downpour in the early morning.

E. Tiger Swallowtail ovipositing on Sweetbay Magnolia (Magnolia virginiana).

Saw my FOY Sleepy Orange near the meadow garden in the first 5 minutes of being outside this morning. The only time it stopped flying erratically was to light for a second on a Senna marilandica seedling and I thought that was surely was too fast to lay an egg but when I looked there it was! (Photo - looks like a grain of rice on the surface of a leaf.) All the sightings are from a few short trips outside. Saw the Sleepy orange twice. [The first sleepy orange reported from GLO this year. tb]

Lots of butterflies here!

Driving by this small park, we saw lots of Purple Loosestrife on the edge of the lake, so why not take a look? It was very active.

A couple of quick walks around the yard. Sunny, hot and humid. Orange Sulphur FOY in the yard.

Observation: 11.30 - 1.15. Blue Sky, temps in the upper 80’s.

Beautiful, breezy but hot morning in the garden with Pat Sutton doing her pollinator talk. Lots of Monarda, New York ironweed and obedient plant in bloom. A female black swallowtail was laying eggs on Golden Alexander!

Observations made off and on throughout the day.

Sunny 90 degrees, SW at 11 mph. It was a nice surprise to see my first actively migrating Cloudless Sulphurs for the year. They moved out towards the canal with a few moving warblers.

Late afternoon sightings.

Female Black Swallowtail was laying eggs. Question Mark was laying eggs on Dwarf Hackberry. Hackberry Emperor turned up early in AM and again in afternoon on dish of gooey fruit. We were able to spend very little time in the garden.

Sachem numbers have been dropping of late but very unusual to see only one on my walk today. High count this year for Silver-spotted Skippers.

Through the day 6-8 Red-banded Hairstreaks were spotted, but a late-in-the-day stroll (5:30 pm) through the garden produced the highest count of 20 Red-banded Hairstreaks on three different Mt. Mint patches, a sprawling stand of Apple Mint, and the tippy top of Cut-leafed Coneflower, plus a few others in shady spots on leaves. Found 1 honk'n big Monarch caterpillar at the base of a huge Swamp Milkweed (while watering). YEA!

Hot and humid–90 degrees. Not much activity but did find a couple early instar cats (1 on each plant)–black ST on Rue, Monarch on c. milkweed, and Spicebush ST on spicebush. Adult Monarch showed up at the end of the day.

Only a couple of hours observation today but set a new early date for Ocola skipper in this garden. This southern bug came in on 15-17 mph SW winds and apparently departed for points north. Only saw it for a couple of min. nectaring on Agastache Went to retrieve my camera and of course it was gone. Think we have all been there! Previous early date here was 8-26-2003. My earliest sighting for this species came 8-6-2018 in Maryland.

[Nice! Our log's first Ocola of 2022. Congratulations, Dave! jc]

Late afternoon sightings.

9:10 to 10:25 am. Sunny, hot & humid.

Incidental sightings while birding very early in the morning.

Observation 10.00-10.30.
A brief walk into the park.

Observation 9.00-9.45, walking the 9/11 Memorial trail and a brief stop at the butterfly garden.

Conservatively counted along a strip ~135m long

Sightings made during the morning. Mostly sunny, hot & humid.

Incidental sightings in the late afternoon.

Brief time in garden.

Obs. made from 2:15 to 2:45. Did not scan the entire fields but activity was much lighter than normal.

Was only in the park from 5:30-6:15 weeding. I witnessed the 2 Monarchs doing a mating spiral and then they landed on the Echinacea pictured. A sulphur was also flying around but would not stop to enable me to identify it.

Spent about 25 min. checking the roadside for Meadow Fritillary this afternoon. Unfortunately, the roadsides here have recently been mowed leaving little to no nectar. 88 degrees, cloudy with 12-15 SW wind.

The first Delaware Skipper here since 2018. Thought at first it was an unmarked male Sachem since Delaware is so uncommon in my garden. When I saw it enter deeply the corolla of pink petunia I knew it was Delaware. Typical behavior for this species. Often seen nectaring deeply in Common Morning glory and Hedge-Bindweed. I did of course also observe the dorsal side which clearly distinguishes this species from Sachem. Image is on Purple wave petunia.

Southern Ocean Birding Group trip with 8 participants

Finally a Cloudless Sulphur…And a female ovipositing on my Senna no less. The green/blue tones are from wear not post pic processing. Beautiful summer form Anglewing sp. blew thru the yard.

[Only our log's 2nd photo'd cloudless of 2022. jc]

Observation: 11.15-12.15. Temps in the high 80’s with a nice breeze.

Enjoyed while watering, trying to keep the garden alive. FIRST of the year Hackberry Emperors appeared and showed up late in the day. Monarch has a hole in its wing.

Observations while working out in the yard. Variegated frit laid an egg on passion vine.

Early evening walk from 5 to 7 pm. Mostly cloudy with a thunderstorm & brief shower. Temps in the upper 80s.

Late afternoon incidental sightings.

Sunny, 86 degrees. Winds SSE, 78% humidity

High count at LL for Spicebush Swallowtail.

Very brief strolls through garden. Sightings while watering.

Numerous butterflies on the Purple Loose Strife planting outside of the diner. Most seemed to be Broadwing Skipprs.

[Welcome to the South Jersey Butterfly Project, Clifford. jc]

Observation: 9.00-12.00
Hot and humid.

Monarch stopped by at noon.

American Lady seen at Lion’s Lake in Voorhees. Dark morph tiger and others at my residence.

Found my first RB Hairstreak of the year for this garden tonight. Eastern Tiger was a stunningly fresh female.

Late afternoon, also a monarch egg found.

Around 7:30 pm–have seen so few hairstreaks.

6:15 to 6:45 pm. Incidental sightings while birding.

4:15 to 6:15 pm. Sunny & hot.

Incidental sightings while in the yard.

First Zabulon I've seen in weeks. I've been scouring the sweet pepperbushes, as they are usually near them now. I expect they will switch to Swamp Loosestrife soon as it starts to bloom.

Big showing of Red-banded Hairstreaks at 5:30 pm (18).

[That's our highest count of red-banded since 5/18/22 when Barbara Sendelbach found 28 in Woodland Township. jc]

Variegated frit new for this season—interested in small passion vine starts and violets but mostly sunning itself.

Very hot & humid. Conservative count since I butterflied a lot from the car. Was happy to see all the Sleepy Oranges and the early Cloudless Sulphur. Less happy to see the narrow-winged mantis devouring the still-struggling swallowtail.

Large patch of milkweed on grassy section of field along road

10am - 5pm. Although it seems that butterflies have been hard to come by this year, with the addition of Delaware Skipper today, we are only one species behind last year’s cumulative total for this date in the yard.

[Excellent news. Dolores. Thank you! jc]

Late afternoon sightings while working in the yard.

Jersey fresh right from the garden.

45 mins. Both sides of the bike path. Horribly dry with very little activity. 17 Common Buckeye and not a single Mangrove.

Brief observation: 1:00-1:30. Ironweed is in full bloom.

9:30-11:45 am. Sunny, mid 80s, light breeze.

Brief time in garden.