Recent sightings

Another surprisingly cooperative Orangetip. Picture was taken with my phone.

1:00 - 3:00. I saw what I thought was a lady fly by and then land. It took quite a long slow stalk to find the lady; I hope the photo explains. I believe the wind kept the action down.

[This is our FOY American lady. Nice to see! jc]

I believe all of the anglewings were qm's. Where are the commas?

11:30. Full sun with wind gusts in the 40's.

All the Henry's Elfins were on a single holly tree.

Marilyn and I at mid afternoon. Partly sunny, 54 degrees, 6 to 16 mph NNE winds.

A quick early afternoon walk around the preserve.

[Congrats to Brian for reporting our first orange sulphur of the year. Our last orange sulphur report was made by Brian on 11/26/19 at North Burden Hill rd. - jm]

In a deciduous forest with a significant American Holly understory.

Most cloudy through the morning, clearing and becoming sunny for a few hours in the mid afternoon. High near 60°F.

[This report of e.t. blue is our log's FOY and gives us our 19th species for 2020. Good find, Tom! jc]

[Observers: You can see the list of species recorded so far this year by going to our Blog [e.g. by clicking on Read Our Blog at the top of this page] and then clicking on "Early/Late Dates, 2008-2020." We are trying to update the spreadsheet as each new species is reported. Let one of the Jacks know if we overlooked a FOY and a new update is needed. Thanks!]

At 51 and cloudy it felt more like early March. Stopped at 4 locations in 2+ hours and this was the only place that had bflys.

Split timing at the road today. Tried around 11am for a bit, but still too overcast. After lunch, I went back around 2pm and with sun out the duskywings emerged. Also a Holly Azure was seen on its host leaf, then flew to the ground.

Cool and cloudy conditions made it easier than usual for pictures of the Orangetips.

67 degrees around 3 pm. Quick walk through this small woods. Azure was high in the canopy and stayed high.

11:39-2:14. Mostly sunny to off and on sunny to thin overcast. 57-59F, light winds.

[Neat! Our first photo of Juvenal's for the year – and our second report of the species. See Jack Miller's note below about previous March reports of this duskywing. jc]

Question Mark visited rotting bananas on and off around 12:30.

Obs. made from 2:15 to 4:30, Partly cloudy 66-70 degrees. A poor photography effort today, but a couple of butterfly surprises. The Orangetip was a male. Only obtained a blurry in flight image. American Copper made a brief appearance before I lost track of it. Also picked up about a dozen ticks..

[Dave, what a fine report. FOY's for American copper and gray hs. The copper sets a new earliest ever date (previously 3/28/12) and the GHS report marks the 4th time in the last five years that GHS has been reported in March. Falcate orangetips are becoming almost as prevalent as snouts. - jm]

The Duskywing was on the fitness trail. We flushed it twice but couldn't get a picture.

[Great FOY find! This is our second earliest report and makes 2020 only the third year we have had reports of Juvenal's in March. (We totaled 13 reports of the species in March, 2012, and four reports of it in March, 2016. How many can we total before this month is out?) jm]

stNice afternoon, sunny and 65 degrees.

A few cabbage whites flying, the pictured one had no spots and I thought it may have been a Falcate Orangetip at first.

[Yikes! I have never seen the like, but after some source-checking, I do see that in Cech & Tudor, "Some spring males are almost pure white and must be distinguished with care from mustard whites." Cool find, Steve, and neat, tell-tale photo! jc]

Warm and sunny, turning to overcast, ~60° F

11:50-13:40

Midday. A day of ones. The only bfly that landed was the QM, and that was only for a moment. Chased the falcate and shot as I ran. Almost positive I saw a Tailed Blue, but it quickly went where I couldn't follow. Weirdly for this location, no Henry's.

This is all we had. I was expecting more! With Marilyn H.

50's, sunny and calm. 11:15- 1:30. Early on, had a serendipitous spotting of a Harvey T. Even at 6 ft apart we had a splendid day. We had hoped to explore more of the area, but the amazing explosion of Henry's kept us bound to about 1/3 of Narrows rd . We enjoyed viewing the subtle appearance differences in the Henry's and saw dogfights of up to 12 at a time. Our Henry's total is conservative. From the photo, one can see that good perches became hard to find.

[Exciting report! Perhaps the highest number of Henry's ever reported from one spot (can't remember ever having triple digits before) – and our first report of holly azure in 2020, our 14th species. jc]

late afternoon, 61 degrees. No orangetips seen

Mourning Cloak was on the move. Spotted it zooming over the house towards the backyard mid-day.

The Azure landed for a few seconds before flying into the woods. It looked good for a Holly.

Orangetip was feeding on hairy bittercress flowers. Certainly the earliest I have ever seen one! (No personal records for March ever).

[Congrats on our second FC report for 2020. It is not surprising that you do not have a previous March record for FC as only two other observers have reported them in March. Your sighting is our log's second earliest report ever. jm]

Battle Ln and Whitehead Rd access points covered in mid-afternoon. Sunny, 54 degrees.

Curiously, no snouts.