Recent sightings

Not much flying when I arrived home from work, but Pat found our first Monarch of the year showing some interest in a planting of Asclepias tuberosa.

3:30-4:10pm

Walked a long section of the river today. That was by far the most Mulberry wings that I have ever seen. There was one bug that looked good for a Black Dash. Unfortunately, by the time I got the camera up it disappeared in the grass. I almost put it on the list but wasn't 100% sure. I will probably try again this weekend.

[We have had only two reports of black dash in our eleven years of logging and they came in our first two years: 7-29-08 at Belleplain and 6-27-09 at Head of River. Neither was photographed (as far as I know). It is considered uncommon and local in North Jersey. Observers who are exploring wet areas in South Jersey over the next month or so might want to review their field guides. It is not an easy ID and could easily be overlooked. Brian or anyone else who finds it will have made a very significant discovery imho! jc)

Mid 80 degrees, 4:45-6:30.

Took a brief walk at lunchtime behind the neighboring properties here to check out some Milkweed & Dogbane.
The Common Milkweed is past its prime here after last week's drenching storms. Was able to find one well worn Banded Hairstreak.

About 86 degrees, partly cloudy.

WI Duskywing cat on Baptisia (blue false indigo)

While weeding, I spotted what I believe to be a Monarch chrysalis hanging from the arbor. I couldn't find any other caterpillars and none of my host plants showed signs of being eaten. Its a mystery!

[Cool shot, nice find, and the correct ID. jc]

Our common milkweed patch is filled with pollinators, especially bee species. Had one monarch cat and 1 monarch adult.

A splendid afternoon in the garden.

[Yes – and more evidence that we are having a splendid butterfly year so far as well! jc]

Obs. made from 2:15 till 4:40. Low 80's and sunny.Visited again today to see how this place faired after last week's deluge. Partial flooding on trail and into one field. Surprising to see so few anglewings or ladies compared to nine days ago. Perhaps they are poor swimmers. A very nice and fresh Eastern Tiger female was a pleasant sight as they have been scarce of late. Also Coppers continue to be unusually scarce here. Some of the Coral Hairstreaks are quite fresh, but most are now showing their age.

Some nice action here in the garden. Probably under counted Snouts as they continue to whirl about the Hackberry trees.

last two days casual sightings identical. Intense perfume here from milkweed and lavender. On any day an Azure will fly up from the damp, wooded edge. Had Black
Swallowtail cat on fennel last week.

3:00-4:30pm, sunny

[This is just our third report of Edwards' so far in 2019. jc]

1:00pm-2:15pm, sunny

11:15am-11:45am, sunny.
We decided to leave after the dog club people, who were training their young dogs to retrieve, started shooting their guns and tossing around dead quail next to where we were looking for butterflies.

[Yikes! Butterflying can be a dangerous enterprise! jc]

10:00am-10:30am, sunny.

Lots of water in the bog, cedars are crowding out a much of the grass formerly there. In a way it's amazing that the site has survived so long without active management.

8:40-10:00 am, sunny, Also had a distant Dave Amadio sighting. He was working his way down the curved side tracks as we were coming back from the straight main tracks. Confirmed by seeing butterfly symbols on back of his car in the parking lot.

It is interesting to compare the lists of what we saw and what he saw from the same general site but with different timing and different paths taken working the site. We had a total of 20 species of including 5 species that he didn't see: Monarch, Northern Cloudywing, Common Sootywing, Northern Broken-Dash and Sachem. He saw a total of 21 species (excluding the Bog Copper which we recorded separately) including 6 species that we didn't see: American Copper, Gray Hairstreak, Red-spotted Purple, Common Wood-Nymph, Little Glassywing, and Dun Skipper.

I'm thinking that most of the differences are accounted for by the specific areas covered. For instance, we didn't look at the curved railroad tracks at all and the 4 skippers we saw that Dave didn't were in a healthy Spotted Knapweed patch near Union/Brown Ave and the post office. I'm willing to bet that Dave wasn't there because one or more of the skippers would surely have been around when he was on site.

[Very interesting contrast. Demonstrates how difficult (impossible?) it can be for one or two observers to make a definitive count of an area. Also shows how "micro-habitat" differences (e.g. one stand of knapweed) can be more significant than they might seem. Thank you for the careful comparison. jc]

Also one third-instar monarch cat.

Away from home most of the day, but photographed with fill flash a Red Admiral early this evening to highlight its brilliant scaling. With such a common species the details often go unnoticed by many when just checking off bugs for the day. Look closely!! and be dazzled.

Stopped here on the way home from Ocean County. Obs. made from 4:25 till 5:45. 81 degrees, part sun and 12-15 mph winds. Despite the previously mentioned meadow restoration project there are abundant stands of common milkweed & dogbane. Photographed an American Copper with bolder than normal FW spots.

Obs. made from 1:30 till 3:30. Part sun, 80 degrees and quite windy. Only one well worn folded wing skipper observed here this afternoon. One small Butterfly weed patch and a couple of Dogbane stands drew in the majority of bugs . Over a brief period of time, the butterfly weed provided nectar for at least 14 Am.Coppers, 2 Coral Hairstreaks, 5 ETB's, & a Gray Hairstreak. One of the stands of Dogbane entertained at least 40 American Ladies. One of the Coral Hairstreaks was having a "bad hair-streak day".

Obs. made from 9:20 till 12:50, 72-78 degrees ,sunny & 8-12 mph winds. The Bog continues to progress into a White Cedar swamp. Only able to find a single Bog Copper today. The only butterfly that I observed in the bog. The RR tracks were much more productive with Striped Hairstreaks putting on quite a show. Among the handful of Mulberry wings was one "suffuse" form individual. Photographed two Mulberry wing variations for comparison.

[Thanks to Dave for the detailed report from this long-famous butterfly spot – with its changing habitat. jc]

Snouts continue. 2 Monarch chrysalises.

Mosquitoes and deer flies made for a rough visit. I only traveled 1/3 of the dike so it is safe assume there are a lot more salt marsh sk's there. Many flowers were quite crowded but everybody was appearing to have a good time. I am pretty sure the rag is a spicebush. Yes, it could still fly.

7 am to 3:30 pm.

80, sunny; 0bservations made throughout the day. I thought I saw a Rare sk here yesterday, but wasn't sure. Today they exploded. Horace's was brand new.

[These are our first rare skippers reported in 2019. Very nice to add. jc]

A brief tour of the yard around midday. Winds in the 20's. Maybe it's my increased awareness, but I have noticed a significant increase of three-spotted cabbages at times. Today, they outnumbered two-spotted. Will the union in the photo produce a 2 1/2 spotted cabbage?

11 am - 2 pm. Dense cloud cover, wind, and cool temps made butterflying tough. Several areas of the fields undergoing restoration (brown and dead). Many of the paths flooded. Still extensive c. milkweed.

late afternoon mid 70's and sunny. Snouts attracted to c. milkweed. One black ST on dill and 2 monarch cats.

Little Wood-Saytr on woodland trails and others in meadow.

Pipevine Swallowtail laying eggs on Dutchman's Pipe.

[Our first pipevine swallowtail of 2019. Good find, J.D. jc]

Scanning the Bush-clover along the dike at the South Impoundment. Overcast, 81 degrees, SW winds. Some sun earlier in the day.

Had a chance to swing by here in the late afternoon on my way elsewhere. In three locations today, I saw a total of 4 hairstreaks that represented 4 species.

Third stop; midday. This is lovely but buggy spot that is also a favorite of Steve Glynn. I wish I had taken the Crescent more seriously as it has interesting similarities to the Northern Crescent in Cech and Tudor (p. 171). My take is that the old Delaware was trying to imitate a European sk.

Paused here on way to my next stop and found myself hypnotically wandering into a massive patch of dogbane. I was only carrying my binoculars as I did not intend to stop and thought it might be private. Once at home, I saw that Google maps suggests that it is part of Bevan Fish and Wildlife. All numbers are conservative and only covered a minor bit of the area.

First stop: 80's, cloudy, 10:15-11:00. I rarely report from this area as Steve Glynn keeps tabs on it, but I liked the photo of the wood-nymph. Surprised to find only 1 coral hs.

[Our FOY common wood nymph for 2019. Nice to add! jc]

Caught up with Micheal, who was looking for Bog Coppers and we made our way to the powerline bog. Several Bog Coppers, but most were very worn and nearing the end of flight season.

[Our first mulberry wing report in more than a year, last =6-12-18. jc]

Despite the overcast conditions, we had a decent variety of insect pollinators today, including solitary bees, bumblebees, wasps, moths, & soldier beetles.

Hot and humid morning trip. I was curious to see if I would find Edwards in the morning, but did not. Mostly, they have been a later in the day bug for me. The surprise of the day was that the buckeyes have found what they want along the unnamed road coming in from rt 49. I believe this is the only place where cabbage whites do not fly.

Obs. made between 2:35 & 4:45. Part sun at first quickly deteriorating to cloudy, 80 degrees with 14-17 SW winds. Several outstanding stands of Common Milkweed but few butterflies nectaring.

Old airplane landing strip area. 2:45 to 3:45 pm.

Area near Bald Eagle Reservoir. 1:30 to 2:30 pm.

Incidental sighting @ 11 am.

Handsome common buckeye basking in the morning sun.

Tried to do a thorough check today, but the biting deer flies and green-heads are terrible now.

I did walk the senna patch and had three very fresh male Sleepy Oranges flying and patrolling. The next few weeks should see activity pick up I suspect.

Big numbers of Aaron's and Broad-winged Skippers, plus a fresh, large emergence of Pearl Crescents were obvious through the fly swatting.

Monarch laying eggs on c. milkweed flower buds

I led a dragonfly walk for Citizens United To Protect The Maurice River and noted butterflies during our walk. During a search of the Maurice River bank grasses, a curious skipper was working the flower heads and leaves of the pickerell weed. From my distance and the depth of the river preventing any closer approach, I took photos of what I believe is a Two-spotted Skipper. The white face and white under-body features can be seen and make other options tough to point to. I welcome any thoughts.

[Although distant, these shots suggest two-spotted to me and others as well.
It is our first-ever report of the species in CUM. jc]

The day's Odonata hunt was quite successful too, as we recorded almost 40 species on the day, including a very rare female Banner Clubtail along the Maurice River and not too far from this location of the skipper.

Smith's Woods butterfly garden
10-11:30am
4 black swallowtail caterpillars and 1 chrysalis

2:45 to 5:00 pm. Very windy.

1:15pm-4:30pm, mostly sunny, brieezy, 80˚F
Pine Barrens Sandwort covers more area than I've seen in the past 15 years.
Unfortunately, I couldn't get a photo of the only Dotted Skipper I could find..

[Our first striped hairstreak and first dotted skipper of 2019. Thank you for checking out this spot, Jim!]

Broad-winged took off before I could snap a picture.

Coral Hairstreak colony has emerged. Late afternoon visit.

Partly sunny, 80 degrees, strong SW winds. Some Common Milkweed along the RR tracks attracted a number of species.

[Sandra ties Jim Springer for our FOY striped hairstreak. We will need wrist-watch reports for official results.

Update: Dave Amadio has pointed out this is a first record for striped hairsteak in Camden County. Super find, SK! jc]

Obs. made from 2:25 to 5:10 p.m. 70-73 degrees with 23-28 mph W-WNW winds & partly sunny skies. A surprising number of butterflies despite the wind. Common Milkweed attracting most of the Hairstreaks. Couldn't buy a Q-Mark here today, but Commas were everywhere. Broad-winged Skippers & NBD's now flying here. Observed a couple of 3rd instar Monarch cats.

[This is our first report of northern broken-dash and the broad-winged report ties Brian J's for first of 2019. Good finds, Dave! jc]

A brief visit from a Hackberry Emperor this morning on bananas. Very windy today limiting activity in the garden. Watched a Snout hanging onto a bamboo stake in the wind.

I had Oak Hairstreak in my yard in June 2012 and possibly once or twice since. Is this species somewhat more common than is thought, but stays in the canopy most of the time?

[Our second oak hairstreak this week, after none in five years. Is CA right about one reason for its scarcity? jc]

Woodland trails and meadow.

I checked out the field that I cleared a few years ago. The breeze and Seaside Dragonlet swarm made the walk a pleasure. The biting flies didn't stand a chance. Lots of Milkweed but it looks really bad. I think it's because of too much rain. The patch on the berm at the end of the trail looks great.

[The 12 broad-winged skippers are our first of 2019. Good to have. jc]

Very windy conditions made it tough, but still productive.

[Our first Edwards in 2019 – and on a new earliest-ever date by one day (previously twice on June 15 in 2010 and 2011). Good find, Steve!] jc