Recent sightings

What an amazing season for Long-tailed Skippers. When the sun peeked out in the afternoon so did a LT Skipper. 4th day running. Interestingly each day was a different Butterfly. No grass skippers in the yard today

[Note that the sk is tailed and fresh. Is this sk a product of the Cape? -jm]

Another cloudy, overcast day, mid 60's, 10-12MPH winds. Most butterfly species still here though I wonder how many butterflies will be here after the next few days of bad weather and high winds. Images of the Long-tailed Skipper and mint fresh Cloudless Sulphur taken. All Monarchs seen over the past week have been in mint condition and looked ready for migration.

I spotted this late ST in a pine tree as I headed out to drop off my vote. I ran in, fetched the camera and snapped a shot or two. Upon returning home, the bug, knowing the jig was up, came down to nectar on my chrysanthemums. It inspired me to take a stroll through the yard despite the fact we have not seen the sun here in 120 hours and still have two days of windy rain ahead of us. What species will be flying in the first week of November?

[This is the latest spicebush st since the log's record LOY on 11/3/15. jm]

Overcast, breezy. I was so surprised to see a butterfly I didn't check the camera settings but it's a Clouded Skipper. It was so tiny I started thinking Common Roadside, but my brain reprimanded me and got me back on track.

[An excellent find! Even without checking his camera settings, Harvey has provided the log with its first photos of a clouded sk for 2020. Harvey "Clouded" Tomlinson also posted our only other cloudless sk report back on 9/20 from Higbee. Incidentally, Harvey was the first observer to log a clouded sk in 2019 with his report from 9/14 which broke a five year drought for this species. We have had reports of cloudless in November, so keep looking. -jm]

Cloudy morning, temp 60 degrees, wind 8 MPH; Monarchs flying at 8AM. Started the day with good numbers of monarchs; then throughout the day they left on their way south. Still cloudy mid AM but temp to 64 and more butteries out in the gardens. Perhaps, they know the season is getting short. Sunny about 3PM with temp about 67. Good variety of butterflies in the gardens. Mating Common Buckeye's on the front lawn.

Incidental sightings while birding in the park today. All were seen in the early afternoon after skies cleared.

Both 10/23 & 10/24 were similar butterfly counts to the days prior to them; with rain all day on 10/25. Today, started cloudy but then the sun and the butterflies came out. There were some cloudy periods throughout the day, winds 7-10 MPH , temps 70. Mid morning, the Monarch numbers started increasing, continuing to build through the day. One lantana bush in the front had over 2 dozen Monarchs nectaring. Mexican Sage in the back had at least 18 monarchs on it. They were gracefully lifting up in clouds when the wind would pick up a little. A friend stopped by and helped me count Monarchs. We stopped counting at just over 100 Monarchs. Exciting for me, was 4 and quite probably 5 Long-tailed Skippers in the yard with 3 in the front gardens and 2 in the back gardens. Only 1 had both long tails, others had partial tails but the sides varied and the last had no tails. There were 3 LTS in my field of vision at once in the front yard while 2 other people were visiting. Fiery Skippers were also very present with 7 counted in one small space of 3 ft by 6 ft and a total of 15 for the gardens. Most were male as is usually the case. Another mint fresh Black Swallowtail was here also. Black Swallowtail, American Lady and Brazilian Skippers caterpillars along with several Spicebush Swallowtail chrysalises continue.

Incidental sightings while birding in the park today. Both Monarchs were actively migrating high in the air on this chilly & cloudy day.

The Sleepy Orange looked just like some of the fallen leaves. It was so hard to spot after it landed but did manage to get a picture.

Incidental sightings while birding today. Most were seen during the afternoon. 71 degrees when finished at 4 pm.

Very little sun, but did reach about 74 degrees. Just casual observation while attending to assorted chores.

Brazilian Skipper nectaring on Japanese Honeysuckle.

Last chrysalis released.

Dense cloud cover but migrating Monarchs seen while walking the trails and from the hawk watch. 22 Monarchs seen on 2 caryopteris shrubs on Harvard near Coral on the Point.

Cloud cover so was surprised to find the skippers. Not cooperative for a photo. Flower garden behind the shop. 68 degrees.

1:30-2:20pm

Red Admiral was at fruit dish.

Obs. made from 3:45 to 4:40, 71 degrees & mostly cloudy. Extensive Frost Asters & grassy areas, but little sun while here.

Obs. made from 2:45 to 3:15, 71 degrees & mostly cloudy. Mostly Frost Aster for a nectar source now. All three Sachems were females. Did not explore the Beech Forest today.

LT Skippers were at Harvard Ave, CMP.

[Welcome to our newest observer, Jack McDonough. And what an entrance! Although sleepy oranges are becoming more common, it is good to see a report of them from CMP. The little yellow is only our second report in 2020; the other report was by Kathy Horn from the Garrett Family Preserve on 7/12. Nice going Jack! -jm]

and the Brazilians and Cloudless just keep coming. These are homegrown bugs.

Temp 76, little wind and sunny all day. Another good day with migrating monarchs. Started the day with over 2 dozen monarchs in the yard. This afternoon KH & RH tagged 30 monarchs before running out of tags, warmth and sunlight. Mid- afternoon had a monarch eclose. Hard to estimate the numbers of monarchs that came and went throughout the day. Increase of American Ladies today. The ratty Long-tailed Skipper from yesterday continues but another very fresh Long-tailed Skipper here today. Stood waiting for 2 Brazilian Skippers to mate for about 20 minutes and while the darker skipper would fly around, landing near the the lighter one, no mating ever took place while I was watching. 1/2 hr later the lighter BS was still in the same exact spot on the leaf. Black Swallowtail caterpillars, Brazilian Skippers caterpillars, American Lady Caterpillars all continue along with Spicebush Swallowtail and Brazilian Skipper chrysalises also present in the yard.

Although a few of these bflys were seen on an early morning stroll, the rest were from a surprisingly active late afternoon stroll to complete a lovely late October 17 species day.

Sunny, calm and mid 70's (again). This area includes a section of private property (with permission). PC's, buckeyes, cloudless clouded are conservative estimates. Nice to see a pair of silver-spotted sk's. The Am. Lady was the smallest I have ever seen: it was barely larger than a pearl crescent. Sadly, I could not get a photo to capture that.

A late afternoon stroll. After three days, the cloudless cat is finally a chrysalis. All of the monarchs were fresh and showed no interest in going anywhere.

After the fog cleared off, sunny, calm and mid 70's. Observations from 11:45- 2:15. A good day for bad photos as neither the viceroy or m. fall form sleepy landed anywhere near us. We were both impressed with the extremely large size of many of the pearl crescents.

No real changes since last report- caterpillars and chrysalises continue. Still having 12-14 species of butterflies in the yard though numbers vary slightly. Today was a good monarch day with 20 monarchs tagged by RH & KH. Then, by 3:30 PM these tagged butterflies, excepting 1-2 of them, were on their way with a new crop of about 15 monarchs stopping by for the night. It was exciting to have 7 mint fresh Cloudless Sulphurs today within the same field of vision in the back yard. Of note. there were 8 male Fiery Skippers and 1 female Fiery Skipper in the yard. 2 Long-tailed Skippers continue though one is really a rag now.

2:30-3:30 pm walk-around; sunny sky after foggy & overcast morning; little wind; temp low 70s. It has become that time of year when each butterfly you find seems to say, "Take a good look. This could the last of my kind you see this year."

3:30 pm 75degrees, still, sun.

We had a rooftop frost on Saturday night which may account in part for a dramatic decrease in species and numbers here. Missed a hair-streak and also a ragged sk that was likely a Brazilian or a tailless long-tailed sk that did not stick around for good view. The cloudless cat J'ed up early yesterday, but still no chrysalis today 10/20.

A quick stop over. Beth has done a great job maintaining this butterfly garden in October! Spicebush and Brazilian cats!

nice new dog walking path with waste stations….

Great day again in the garden for mid Oct. Temp's high 60's & sunny. An influx of Common Buckeyes, Painted and American Ladies noted. Some really runty Common Buckeye and American Ladies noted. There are new eggs on the Cassia that look like 2 different types - one round egg and one oval egg. Oval egg looks like the Cloudless Sulphur eggs. Caterpillars on rue and parsley, cannas and spicebush. Mint fresh Red Admiral. Midday another Long-tailed Skipper put in a fast appearance while I was working in the garden without my camera. Not found again once camera available.

60's, mostly sunny, winds in the teens. Flowers are scarce here now. I did not find any buckeye cats, but that doesn't mean aren't still trying.

Lovely day but sparse on butterflies.

not much nectar here- some seaside goldenrod but less flowering than I have seen other years; steady trickle of monarchs

As I said earlier this season, my primary interest this year was moth photography with little paid attention to our daytime visitors, but I have occasionally been heading out with the camera in the morning or afternoon to local areas. This one caught my eye yesterday. The lighting wasn't quite right for me to see it visually, but once I got home, it didn't take long to realize that this was a viceroy- red spotted purple hybrid. I know these are often reported as rare, but I think it has more to do with lighting and coloring as the latter often is so close to either one or the other species that field ID automatically puts it into either the red spotted purple or viceroy category. I've definitely seen these before but often I am not confident whether or not it was a hybrid. Anyway, all I could get in focus was closed wings, but I have attached both. Wind was a moderate issue yesterday as well as dropped temperatures.

[What a find and what a photo of a stunning bug! Yes, the RSP/Viceroy hybrid is reported as rare. As far as I could find, we only have one photo of this hybrid combination in our log which Jack C wrote about on October 21 2012, and no other reports. I have photos from 9/20/13 of these two species mating, but they are not in the log. Considering the thousands of entries that have been posted since 2008, I think we can say that in SJ, this is a rare hybrid. In an article published on 25 October 2018 for the Xerces Society, Bryan E. Reynolds states "there have only been approximately 80 documented sightings of this particular hybrid in the wild." Even if this figure is off, it still suggests that this hybrid combination is rare. Also of note is that neither Cech and Tudor or Glassberg mention this hybrid in their respective field guides. -jm]

I've been out of the area for six weeks and figured I'd check on the area at least once more, while the weather was still cooperative. Today was a beautiful, sunny, 59 degree day.

Activity was very good and the Sleepy Oranges were running the range of looking pretty fresh to very worn. Eleven individuals was a nice count and will now be interesting to see if and how many of them will over-winter and be found next spring.

The area has seen some cutting however, as about 20% of the colony's senna patch was cut to the ground for hunting access. I can no longer maintain contact and follow up, and I suspect that an inevitable end may come at some point. The cutting down will allow hunters access around the main patch and I suspect will probably invite hunter's to trample straight through the patch now. Some cutting and clearing was probably a necessary step for maintaining the patch, so perhaps this cutting will be a positive thing going forward, but the threat of trampling has always been a concern through the years.

All in all, a nice way to spend part of my 60th birthday.

[Happy birthday and welcome back after your long absence. -jm]