Recent sightings

E. Tiger coming to zinnias and 'jeanna' Phlox paniculata. Monarch laying eggs on c. milkweed. Silver spotted skipper first visit this summer. On Sat a Black ST emerged from overwintered chrysalis–that took a while! Today's Black ST chased by a catbird.

[Very interesting late emergence of over-wintering BLST cat! Can't help wondering how often that happens. jc]

For last couple of days female summer azures have been landing regularly on Clethra alternifolia, sweet pepperbush, and touching unopened blossoms with their abdomens. Movement is quick and hard to photo. Haven't found an egg yet, but could they be ovipositing? Clethra is not a listed host plant for azures.

Photos are all of same individual (we think) but at least one other female (with a distinctive chipped wing) that escaped the camera multiple times was also behaving in same way.

A couple of hours obs. made this afternoon. Zabs were 2 males and one female.

2:15 to 3:45 pm. Sunny, hot & humid.

10 to 2:15 pm. Partly sunny, hot & humid.

Started at 10 am with an overcast sky, sky opened up at 10.30.

Incidental observations from The Osprey during backbay tour (10am-12pm). All butterflies generally headed north over marsh/waterways, with exception of Black Swallowtail and Cabbage White on Coast Guard base.

I was very surprised, walking a path of the wooded part of my property around 9am, to see this Mourning Cloak rise up and fly smoothly away. I checked the latest Leplog and was glad to read that such a sighting might be expected at this time. Also, two tiny Monarch Cats tucked into very young Common Milkweed shoot. Monarch(s) flying all day, probably already counted.

[Although not common, the log does receive reports of MC in July most years. It is often a "how unusual!" moment. -jm]

A final stop made here to check once more on a previously good spot for Meadow Fritillary. Observed ample amounts of violets, but again no Meadow Fritillary.

Overcast with low 80's. The only activity here today was Monarchs. 2 adults and 1 cat on Swamp Milkweed.

Another brief stop at around 2:45. Overcast and low 80's. Zabulon was a 2nd brood female. also saw one Monarch cat on Tropical Milkweed.

A brief stop here to scan some preserved farmland.

Stopped at various stands of Dogbane & Red Clover along this road from Featherbed to RT 40. This area was excellent for Meadow Fritillary 2 years ago, but nothing last year or this year so far.

Obs. made from 12:15 to 1:35, mid 80's and part sun. Walked most of the roadside from Sharptown-Auburn Rd. to Kings Hwy. The 3 common pierids were just that today common when normally they would be abundant.

In search of Meadow Fritillary today. A fair amount of Dogbane along roadsides that was mowed earlier in the season is providing nectar now. Numbers and diversity way off the norm in Salem County. Started searching around 12 noon.

Less time spent in the garden today.

First sighting of sleepy orange in my yard this year! Unable to obtain a decent picture as it was flying frenetically low to the ground covering quite a bit of yard and rarely stopping (but I had to stop following it and go inside and pack for our vacation so not much time for butterfly watching today).

9:20 to 3 pm. Mostly sunny, 73 to 83 degrees.

Spent almost 2 hours in the field (10-12 am)

A very short stop from 9-9.20 am at the butterfly garden

82 degrees and not too humid. Some wet areas on path attracting e. tailed blues, snout. Found a hackberry tree finally! Purple loosestrife in bloom. Fresh brood A. copper

I thought I saw a tawny emperor a some days ago, so ala Clay Sutton (his 7/18 Brazilian sk report), I went out Friday night with my UV flashlight and found a bunch of young tawny cats on both of my hackberry trees. Although tawnys are present here every year now, I rarely see them.

Obs. made from 3:15 to 3:45 only covering the butterfly garden & adjacent fields. 84 & mostly sunny.

Obs. off and on throughout the day. Only my first RSP in the garden this year, quite unusual. Horace's were male & female.

Nice to see so many Monarchs.

[A very encouraging list. - jm]

Sightings from the Ocean County section. 2:45 to 4:15 pm. Sunny, low 80s. Sweet Pepperbush just starting to bloom.

Sightings from the Burlington County section. 4:30 to 5:15 pm. Sunny, low 80s.

First multiple sighting of CBs this year and only second sighting of American Lady.

I harvested Tropical Milkweed seeds last year and grew plants from them which I potted on my deck. Today, a Monarch was ovipositing on them!

Incidental sightings along edges of wildlife drive

Summer Azures are everywhere in the garden. We've had 1-3 Monarchs in the garden almost daily since June 15th. The 3 today included 2 females, one of which was laying eggs. Lots of tiny holes in Common Milkweed, including this one made by this young Monarch cat. YEA! Cut-leaf Coneflower "Herbstsonne" (the one that is not a thug) is blooming and already pulling in hairstreaks. Had our 1st Hayhurst's Scallopwing in several years, despite having plenty of Lamb's Quarters (their host plant). Tallied the number of Brazilian Skipper cats: at least 15 (some with quite large leaf pockets).

I watched a black st lay egg after egg on the seeds of a dead parsley plant despite the fact that there is live dill and parsley in the yard and a large golden Alexandra within inches of the dead parsley. I don't doubt many of us could make some comments about this behavior.

12:15-1:15pm

The yard's FOY painted lady.

[This is only our third report of painted lady in 2021.- jm]

One, probably 2 male, and one female Monarch flew all day,sometimes all three together, even into dusk at 7:15 pm. Now seeing Monarchs daily.

11:00-11:40am
Butterfly garden only. Lots of flowers in bloom, but few butterflies.

1:20-2:20pm
Probably the most American coppers I have ever seen in one spot. Certainly the most diversity I have seen yet in the County Parks this year.

[45 is a lot of coppers! American coppers can be an explosive species. -jm]

I only included the skipper pictures because I could not positively ID-not sure if the pictures are enough-they are both of the same skipper. Monarchs were hanging around the stand of swamp milkweed behind the house all day. In another part of the yard a female Monarch for well over an hour was landing on Butterfly weed and common milkweed foliage (here pictured landing on the only flower left in the stand near a pair of large milkweed bugs). Hopefully will soon have baby cats. The Red-banded Hairstreak is on the same stand of Swamp milkweed the monarch was visiting all day.

[I believe the sk in the photos is a tawny-edge. -jm]

This or another PVST has been zipping through our yard several times a day w/o nectaring or perching since 7/18.
Finally managed a shot.

[Ah, that wonderful moment when not only does a butterfly finally land, but one has a camera on hand. -jm]

Partly cloudy, mid-70s.

Cape May Butterfly Count

Cape May Butterfly Count

Cape May Butterfly Count. Hazy, hot & humid.
Photos : N Broken Dash, Fiery Skipper

3 parties covered Area 3 and tallied an amazing 40 species. Sweet Pepperbush was just beginning to bloom.

Area 5, Cape May Butterfly Count, nothing flying in the garden at the point garden.

Area 5, Cape May Butterfly Count, mid-morning stop–biting flies bothersome as we walked this front garden. Salt Marsh skippers mostly on sweet pepper bush. Monarch laying eggs on c. milkweed.

Area 5 of the Cape May Butterfly Count, early to mid-afternoon, hot & humid. Powerline cut trail to lake. Sulphur sp. was a female orange or clouded.

Area 5, Cape May Butterfly Count, midday, hot & humid. Dogbane and some C. Milkweed in bloom main nectar sources. E. Tiger ST seen while driving just outside this spot. Broad-wing & Salt Marsh skippers on dogbane and conservative count.

Hot, Humid, Smokey. Numbers very low so we had to kick the bushes to find them. 28 species

I was away most of the day, but a couple of walk-abouts produced the most species for the yard this year. The rare sk was a rag that spent the day on one coneflower plant. I am guessing it will be the last one in the poorest year for that species in my yard. The Appalachian Browns were just beyond my back fence.

After Kathy Horn's report of a Dion at Mac, I searched in places where the host plant grows but did not find Dions.

We both enjoyed the “Pop-Up Garthering” yesterday.
Jack & Jesse, thanks again for your hospitalety.

A mint fresh ( on spearmint) 2nd brood Zabulon Skipper showed up this day.

[Nice to welcome the new brood. -jm]

[Congrats to Kathy for finding a Dion at MacNamara. As far as I know it is a new species for that location and puts the number of total species there to 61. -jm]

During youth program from 9:30-12:00.

Came to check out the status of the Zinnia garden here. It is well underway, with some other butterfly-friendly plants as well. Cloudy at the time of observations.

New ones, I didn’t report yet at this location.

Sightings from 7/18 and 7/19 so as not to repeat numbers. On these two days I have seen the following ovipositing here: variegated frit, sachem, cabbage white, black st, Am copper and snout. Two nice additions to the yard today: the first RBHS here from the new brood and a FOY S. cloudywing which not common here. I studied it for a minute and never saw again which was similiar to the 2 second look I had of a juniper hs last week. How many times do we just barely miss seeing the gulf frittalary in our yards?

NBDs courting. Milkweed tussock moth cat seems early (for our yard, at least).

Turns out Clay's probable Brazilian Skipper on July 9th, was indeed a Brazilian Skipper. We have dozens of folded over Canna leaf parts with growing cats inside (front yard garden AND back yard garden).
[Congrats to Pat and to Clay for having his probable bug confirmed as our first report of Brazilian sk this year. Whose canna plants will be next? -jm]

Pearl crescent on mountain mint (Pycnanthemum tenufolium) was very tattered. Eastern tiger swallowtail (female dark morph) spent quite a long time on the anise hyssop.

R-S Purple was ovipositing on Black Cherry tree.
Lots of dragonflies hunting in the gardens but the Eastern Pondhawks were the most voracious as evidenced by the unlucky skipper (sachem?) in the photo.

I was happy to spot the Red Admiral.
Just before my mother passed away last year, she told me that she wants to come back as a Red Admiral.
I think she was waiting for me to meet me this morning.

2 monarchs released (both males) and a female laying eggs.

I’m so excited to report a monarch, because it has been such a slow year sadly. It was picking up in early May and then that sudden cold snap wiped out anything I had in my yard . I recorded 42 degrees early the morning of the cold snap. Some may have survived if it wasn’t for the pouring cold rain for 3 days and 42 temps in May.
I have one monarch caterpillar at 3 instar and today there was a monarch laying her eggs on the native milkweed. Usually I have at least a 100 monarch caterpillars this week. So maybe it’s a good sign now that I had one stop by today. There’s still warm enough temps to support plenty of monarch activity and I planted tons of milkweed this year. Fingers crossed

3:30 in the afternoon, partly sunny, 82 degrees.

Only short trips outside due to the heat. Silver-spotted skipper was really enjoying the mountain mint (Pycnanthemum incana) in the meadow garden. The snowberry clearwing hummingbird moth was still coming to the Monarda fistulosa even though it is past its prime. A pair of Sachems were on anise hyssop. Saw a monarch twice in different parts of the yard but it could have been the same one.

Finally plenty of butterflies here.

Obs. made from 1:15 to 2. Black swallowtail cat was on parsley.

Less activity today. Very hot again, 94 sun & humid.

Variegated Fritillary was a lifer…

Shooting Pictures of Skippers is the easy part. Identifying these creatures is a pain in the rear, even with the tools Jack & Jack forwarded to me, it is a challenge.

good nectar here but little activity: 1-1:30. Very hot–90 degrees

Blue trail; 88 degrees, 11-12:30 pm, hot and humid. Maybe too hot for the butterflies! Stopped at the Triangle garden and had nothing even with good nectar. Very hot by then.

3-3:20 pm hot & humid, but some shade in parts of the garden. Snouts laying eggs on the hackberry trees in the parking area.

[Good to see first scallopwing in a month – second brood emerging, apparently. jc]

Observation made 12:20- 1:15. This is the same powerline as discussed in my other entry from 7/16/21. This quagmire was too wet and dangerous to fully survey. It is possible that the low count from this often rich colony is because the Dion's are not at peak.

Observation made between 11:15- 12:10. 93, windless, harsh sunlight, and as always, extra humid due to the constant presence of water. In other words, a perfect day for wandering this quagmire. This Dion colony produced 5 individuals which is the most in 3 years. It also presented the second infamous "red dash" I have seen here. Please see Jack Connor's write up of Kathy Horn's dash photo from 7/8/21. I have a difficult time thinking of these dashes as anything but S. broken-dash, but for now we record them as N. broken-dash.

Obs. made from 4:05-5:40 p.m. Still 93-94 & mostly sunny. Found at least 7 trees with Woolly aphids but no sign of Harvester cats or adults. Most trees with aphids also had numerous final instar Spotted Lanternflies close by. They seemed to be attracted to the aphids or the honeydew that they secrete. One two foot section of branch had at least 100 lanternflies on it.

Obs. made from 3-3:45 only covering the butterfly garden & adjacent fields. 93-94 degrees and mostly sunny. Very slow at first but picked up on my way out. Nice surprise in the garden! first a fresh Variegated Frit & then a Sleepy Orange nectaring on Purple Coneflower & daylillies. The Wild Senna planted in the garden may be paying off.

[Excellent find! The first sleepy orange reported in GLO this year and the second from Wheelabrator, after photo and report of one there by Chip Krilowicz and Jean Gutsmuth way back on 12-1-2016. jc]

Obs. made from 10-2:30. NBD was the first for the garden this year. Both Swallowtails were fresh males.

3 black swallowtail caterpillars;1 black swallowtail ovipositing; variegated fritillary ovipositing

91 degrees and sunny. Black Swallowtail was cruising around fennel.

One hour walk 7-8 am.
Skippers, most are new for me, except the Silver Spotted skipper.

This report covers both Wed and Th so as not to repeat species and individuals. Only the high number from each day is reported. This year will be the lowest tally of rare sk's ever and the number of sachems and broadwings are also very low. Last year's lone juniper hs was present for 2 minutes; this year's lone individual so far was only present for 2 seconds.

6 black swallowtail caterpillars

Tiger ST in short supply recently. A. snout still attracted to short-toothed or clustered mt. mint.

Stopped by in the heat of the afternoon to see how the Dion colony was doing. Most of the bflys were hanging out in the shade on sweet pepperbush. The salt marsh sk was so worn that the biggest identification clue was its shape.

[Nice! This gives us three reports for dion in 2021. jc]

A few strolls through the garden today. Dion's Skipper is always a treat in the garden. Tiger Swallowtails coming to the 1st few Turk's-cap-Lilies in bloom. Female Monarch laying eggs, plus found a few caterpillars on Common Milkweed.

[Only our second report of dion so far this year. jc]

Also had a Hummingbird Clearwing for first time in a few years. It was nectaring on Monarda fistulosa which was added last year in a new pollinator garden.

One Banded still on a lonely patrol. Question Mark at Hops.

Observations made off and on throughout the day. Broad-winged skippers seemed to be laying low around 2pm while the Sachems took center stage chasing anything that moved.

[Our log's first fiery skipper for 2021. Good find, Dolores! jc]

Our first painted lady in the yard this year and only the second so far for our log. Not a good year for them so far in our region. The North Jersey log has had only has eight reports this year, mostly singletons. Will we see a late summer surge?

Seeing a lot more Sachems over the past few days.

From 9-12.
One of the variegated fritillaries was nectaring on the new black-eyed susan flowers we planted in June.

[Our log's FOY common checkered-skipper at last – the second-latest first report in our log's history (8/4/2009). Good find, Jen! jc]

5 Black Swallowtail cats. 1st dark Tiger Swallowtail (female) in the garden.

Least skipper may be new for our yard–on narrowleaf mt. mint. Monarch laying eggs on c. milkweed

American Lady circling garden and ovipositing repeatedly on pussytoes.

Couldn't tell if Sulphur was Orange or Clouded.

9-10:15 am Sunny, hot, sl breeze

Beautiful day of kayaking and casual butterflying.

My first sighting this year of a Least Skipper.
Lot of BF’s and one Tick bite.
It’s Tick season, be aware of it.