Recent sightings

Sightings while gardening. Juniper Hairstreak swirled down onto some sedges in our woods, landed, got its photo taken, then swirled back up into a Red Cedar.

Red-banded H. and Pine Elfin were on Black Cherry blossoms.

FOY Sachem in the yard -early record for me. (Image a little fuzzy as like Jack Miller my camera's focus seems to be going.) Spicebush and Black swallowtail chrysalis still overwintering. 2nd sighting of Juvenal's Duskywing this year in the yard.

High 50's, sunny but windy this am with a birding group. In the parking lot at the beginning, we were surprised to see a monarch land very briefly on a viburnum flower, then it flew off. It was my FOY monarch.

62 degrees and sunny.

11:30-1pm, sunny

[Congrats to Jack for logging our FOY little wood-satyr. -jm]

Around 10:30/11am and sunny. While photographing a jumping spider with my macro lens, of course a common sootywing flies in and starts nectaring on some cinquefoil. The first I’ve seen this year. By the time I switched to my larger lens, it flew away. Will revisit site tomorrow morning.

[Not just Jack's FOY sootywing, but the first for our log in 2021. Nicely done, Jack. -jm]

Sightings while gardening.

High 50's and wind 10-15mph. Didn't expect to see any butterflies but a quick break in the clouds for a few minutes revealed a male zabulon skipper sunning itself, my FOY.

Observations between 11 o’clock and 12:30 PM breezy day beautiful temperatures. The red banded hair streaks were everywhere! Numbers are an approximation

Windy and chilly, around 3:30. I went out to cut some iris blossoms and found a Red-banded Hairstreak all the way inside one of the blossoms!

10:30 to 1:15 pm. Cloudy with one brief 10 minute period of sunshine. Breezy, cool, 58 degrees when finished.

[Nicely done Tom! This is only the second report of dusted sk from Ocean county in our log's history. The other report was from 5/12/15. -jm]

The only butterfly observed here today was this late afternoon Sachem. A fresh male on French Lilac bush. A brief few moments of sun and 58 degrees at 4:40 p.m. enabled this bug to come out and imbibe some nectar.

[Our 2nd sachem of the year and first photo'd. jc]

Incidental sighting while birding in the park all day. Black Swallowtail fresh.

Just felt like a Zabulon kind of morning here in the garden. I was expecting one and sure enough this male assumed his normal early spring role in the garden.

[Nice! Our log's first for 2021. jc]

All butterflies were puddling! No nectar where they were found.

[Interesting behavior and scene to witness! I think this may also be a first photo record (for our log) of Hessel's in Belleplain. Anyone know an earlier one? jc]

[Update: Dave Amadio reports that he recorded and photographed a Hessel’s Hairstreak in Belleplain on the Goosekill trail the year before we started our log, on 4/30/07. jc]

while working in the butterfly garden from 1-3pm

while birding in the park in the am; not 60 degrees until the end of our walk.

Cruising through back yard around 12:30, sunny and 62 degrees.

Noon, low 60's. Very short visit. Saw my FOY red admiral.

While birding in the park in the am. High 50's and wind 11 mph most of the time.

Obs. made between 2:40 & 5, Sunny 64-66. My primary goal here was to photograph E.Pine Elfin, having missed it so far this spring. Had to wait until 4:45 to obtain a decent image. Found it interesting to see a male Cobweb Skipper nectaring on Bearberry flowers.

Obs. made here between 12:55 & 2:30, Sunny 61-64. Numbers and diversity still low here. Was joined by Harry Zirlin who got me onto my first of two Hessel's today. Found a 2nd individual after he moved on to explore other areas. Harry also observed a Red-Banded Hairstreak that I did not see.

Am. Ladies continue to move through, laying eggs on Pussytoes.

I was looking for Am. Coppers, but found this FOY male Sachem instead.

[Our log's first sachem for 2021. Good find! jc]

1:30 pm - 60 degrees and sunny

[Our log's first dusted skipper for 2021 – and tying our all-time earliest record for emergence, set in 2012 when many species emerged very early. Good find, Jack! jc]

Around 11:30am - 57 degrees and sunny

Admiral and Question Mark on fruit.

[Our log's 2nd report of sootywing and the first in CMY. jc]

FOY Spicebush, a mint-fresh male. FOY Summer Azure, ovipositing on flowerhead of Silky Dogwood, its preferred FP in my yard. 8-Spotted Forester moth on VA Creeper.

[Our log's first report of summer azure in 2021. Thank you, Cynthia, and watch out, everyone! Azure ID in May gets even more complicated now! jc]

Around 2:00, sunny and humid. Eastern Tailed-Blue was nectaring on clover.

Black Swallowtail (female) laying eggs on Fennel. American Snout up in Dwarf Hackberry tree. Red Admiral laying eggs on Stinging Nettle. Our 1st Monarch, a female laying eggs on Common Milkweed off and on through the day. Common Milkweed is up 1', Butterfly Weed is up 8", Swamp Milkweed is up @ 8".

Monarch seen flying approximately 10:30 am, intermittent sun.
Later around 4:30 on milkweed found Monarch eggs.

Obs. made from 2:30 to 4 p.m. Walked from Warren Grove where the road became risky to pass with an old 2WD pick up to the Oswego preserve area. Surprised to see so little on foot.

Obs. made from 12:45 to 2:30. Part Sun 72-75 degrees.

Obs. made between 10:45 & 12:35, 4:20-5:15. Mostly Cloudy and 61-70. Afternoon return visit was mostly cloudy and 66-68. My only Hessel's Hairstreak occured at 4:50 p.m. Red Admiral & American Lady seen in the late afternoon also.

10:20-12:00 75 degrees . We had a fast flyby of a very large sulphur? Possibly a cloudless sulphur but never got my binoculars on. Same with the Anglewing.

[Cloudless sulphurs are being reported from Maryland, so chances seem good for us here as well. jc]

Photo of egg on host plant (Baptisia)

[Cool spotting! jc]

1:00pm

[Our log's first red-spotted purple of 2021 – good find! jc]

Short walk around 330 to 4 o’clock before the rain started. Mixed sun and clouds

4th stop. 1:30- 3:15. Continued cloudy with weak showers. There were lots of bflys around, but I missed many due to my intense focus on Hessel's and cobwebs. Cruddy new camera could not come up with a decent photo in low light which was frustrating because these cobwebs are not what I am used to seeing. They are generally different, especially on the forewing dark mark. Goodbye camera.

[Exciting to see a dozen cobweb skippers at one spot. Double-digit counts of them have been very few over last several years. jc]

2nd stop. A red admiral took as much time as I did deciding on tomato, pepper, basil plants, etc.

3rd stop; 12:30- 1:15. Cloudy with rain sprinkles.

First stop. 10:15- 11:45. 100% clouds, mid 70's. Hessel's was a fly-by.

Fun sightings while whipping the garden into shape. E. Comma was interested in the Hops. Red Admiral laying eggs on Stinging Nettle.

[Can't remember when we last had a photo of red admiral laying eggs on stinging nettle, though it's a primary host for them. Good shot! jc]

Question Mark and American Ladies laying eggs on their host plants

Recently, Am. Ladies have been moving through yard and laying eggs on Pussytoes. FOY Juniper Hairstreak.

Only a quick half hour tour here this afternoon.

Tigers were male & female both on French Lilac. Brief visit from A.Lady also on the Lilac.

Incidental butterfly sightings while doing a bird sound workshop.

Late afternoon. Yard's FOY monarch.

Very windy, bright sun 12:52 pm. Milkweed in garden up 6-8 inches.

Incidental sightings while birding in the park today. Cabbage White numbers are an estimate.

[Tom's sootywing and wild indigoes are both FOY's for 2021. Nicely done. - jm]

Brian and I each independently and unknowingly walked the whole powerline cut today and it is strange that we missed each other. The wind made things challenging. A Juvenal's was seen ovipositing on baptisia.

[Jack M modified this report to eliminate repeating data. -jm]

Around 10:30am, full sun. It was really exciting to see my first NJ monarchs of the year! Especially to see so many arriving off the SW winds

Fun sighting while gardening

3:15-4:30pm, sunny, less wind than earlier, 63°F

Temperatures finaly made it to the low 60's
Photos from Mike Newlon.

17 Intrepid butterflies met outside Lucille's at 9:30am with the temperature at 51°F and winds 20+ mph. However, when we got to our first stop, the butterfly were aleady flying in protected places, no doubt assisted by the full sun we had all day. The sand roads west of Warren Grove have never been that great but and we were surprised by the number and depth of the road spanning craters. filled with water. People driving cars parked them along the side of the road and everyone piled into the vehicles with higher clearance and 4WD. This got us further down the road but then we ran into water hazards that we didn't want to chance getting stuck in so those vehicles were parked and we walked from there. All photos from MIke Newlon.

[Thank you for gathering the group, pushing over the challenging road, and giving us the report. Thanks also to Mike Newlon for the nice shots. jc]

While leading a botanical walk, we happened to see a few butterflies in the afternoon when the wind was not so strong.

Admiral was hanging around blueberry patch in our woods.

On French Lilac. A male

Quick stop from 3 to 3:45. @65 degrees, sunny, breezy.

1:15 to 2:30. Sunny, windy. Temps in mid-60s.

10:15 to 12:45. Temp 50 to 63 degrees. Sunny & windy.

9:10 to 9:45. Temps in the upper 40s. Very windy.

Brief appearance on French lilac

Mid-afternoon, 73 degrees, sunny and windy.

[A nice list for a day when "windy" is an understatement as winds howled in the 20's and 30's all day. -jm]

Working in butterfly garden, between 1-3pm.
Extreme winds made it tough to find butterflies out today.

Extreme winds made it tough to find butterflies out today. These were seen between 10:30-11:30am. My FOY red-banded hairstreak was seen through binoculars, perched on a black cherry leaf but too far away for a picture.