Recent sightings

A lovely breezy day in the low 70's with lots of sun. 5 days ago, I reported 10 Am. coppers. Today, I could not find one: it was if they all set their watches to leave at the same time. I wonder if today will be my last double-digit species day of 2021?

75 degrees and humid under partly sunny skies.

Low 60's and mostly cloudy.

Cloudy, temps in the upper 50s.

68 degrees and partly sunny. Fresh RB hairstreaks on the asters. Also a mating pair of Orange sulphurs.

My first visit here this year. Usually try to visit once or twice when the frost Asters are in bloom. Frost Aster not as abundant as it once was here, but still common. Obs. made from 2:40 to 4:10, part sun and 66-67 degrees.

Part sun today and 66. The 2nd Ocola of the season for this garden. This is a new late date here.

Red Admiral was on fruit dish. FOY in my yard.

It was a pleasant surprise to see the long-tail on the trail today. I didn't have my camera today but it let me get close enough for a ID picture with my phone.

[This is the first record on our log of long-tailed skipper in CUM in more than three years. The last report was from Tony Klock in his garden in Port Norris on 10/7/18 (a sighting Brian documented for us). jc]

Good variety of butterflies out in the agricultural fields on this warm, low-wind day.

It seemed extra special watching Monarchs and Cloudless Sulphurs floating through the garden on this gorgeous October afternoon knowing that there won’t be too many more days to enjoy them.

Warm sunny day, I followed the butterflies from one garden to the next as the sun moved across the yard.

Sunny and mild, 75 degrees.

While working in the garden from 1:50-4:00pm.
3 black swallowtail caterpillars on parsley.

While weeding in the new pollinator meadow, I came across these species between 9-11am. The checkered skipper landed on one of the last remaining mistflower blooms.

Gorgeous sunny day in the 70's. It is nice to still have so many species present here. Most of the pc's and some of the coppers were on my property beyond my fence crowding onto a couple of frost aster blooms. It looked like the crowded cabin scene in A Night at the Opera.

Monarch roost this afternoon about 5PM estimated 400 monarchs

Monarch roost this AM estimated 1500 monarchs.

[Good to hear! jc]

The Tartarian aster continues to be the biggest draw in our yard. The Monarch was there all day- from the morning till after 5:00. Besides one Silver-spotted skipper butterfly, I found 3 of the cats on Black locust saplings. There are still 6 Black swallowtail cats on fennel.

Another wonderful butterfly day with Kathy Horn & me tagging over 50 monarchs with many more coming through the yard. I'd estimate at least 150 monarchs came through today. 2 Long-tailed skippers -tailless and 2 tails. But ocola skippers ruled the day with 28 counted between the front and back gardens. Large numbers of sachem skippers continue. Only new species for today listed.

Fresh Red Admiral. It continues to be a good fall season for M. Cloaks.

White M Hairstreak, and a mint fresh Eastern Comma saved what was a dismal birding morning.

"Groundhog Day" continues. Sachems and little else. Only one Cabbage White today and none yesterday.

Butterfly garden, 2:20pm.
2 black swallowtail caterpillars remaining in host plant bed. Fiery skipper was a worn female.

In spite of the winds the yard is continuing to have monarchs coming through the yard and nectaring and then moving down the dunes nectaring on seaside goldenrod. This American Lady caterpillar walked across the sidewalk in front of me looking for a place to pupate. I watched a good number of AL eggs laid on pussytoes earlier this week.

Incidental sightings while fishing. There is a 20 yd by 30 yd patch of goldenrod at 59th st that held all of the bflys except for 11 monarchs I saw while driving through OC.

Surprised to see 3 first-for-yard-of-this-year Black Swallowtail cats on some fennel.. And they were almost full-grown already.

Mostly birding today though I did spend @30 minutes checking the gardens. Sunny & still breezy.

Sachems continue to be abundant.

10:30-3:00. Sunny with strong gusty winds from the Northwest. What started as a birding trip also became a butterflying trip. Amazing numbers of Monarchs (and Yellow-rumped Warblers!) in vegetation along the sides of the road. Quite a few of the Monarchs had begun congregating in Red Cedars.

A new batch of 3 Black Swallowtail cats on Common Rue

Very windy but sunny and much cooler…instars of Sleepy Orange and Brazilian Skipper shown. We will miss visiting this location..

10-12, really windy, 48F to begin

62 degrees and winds.

Incidental sightings while birding in the park today. Mostly sunny, very windy, temps @60 degrees.

First black swallowtail here in several weeks. The yard likley had a record number of black st cats this year.

Spent most of the day in the garden hoping that the strong south winds and 82 degree temps. would bring me an Ocola Skipper. At around 3 p.m. they did just that. Have recorded Ocola here now 9 of the last 10 years. A fresh Zabulon Skipper appeared around 10 a.m. Our data strongly suggests that we have a small 3rd brood of Zabulons here in South Jersey. The last report this season for Zab came on 9/14 at Pat & Clay's garden. Not reported again until 10/14 at Lucy Hooper's garden in Mickleton Gloucester County. Past year's data indicates a similar pattern of occurrence. Horace's DW was a fresh female.

[Congrats to Dave on finding his annual yard ocola. His suggestion that Zabs may be 3 brooded in NJ is an interesting one.

Also interesting is examing the flight periods and destinations of Ocola skippers in NJ. Here are the sightings in our log so far for 2021:

SAL and OCN - no reports
CAM, CUM and BUR - 1 report from each county with 1 individual in each report
GLO - 3 reports with 1 individual in each report
ATL - 6 reports from only two locations (home gardens of Connors and Apgar) for a total of 15 individuals
CMY – 53 reports with a total of over 230 individuals.

The total number of Ocolas from 7 of 8 of our reporting counties is 21. On 10/2, Dave Amadio saw 39 Ocolas in three locations in the CM Point area. On 10/14, 4 CMY gardens reported more Ocolas (22) than the year's total from all other reporting counties.

In the first 4 years of our log (2008 – 2011), no FOY Ocolas were reported until September. In the last 5 years of log, no FOY Ocola has been reported later than August, and our FOY record is 6/24/17.

For years there has been discussion as to whether some southern species migrate along the Delaware River which could account for NNJ reporting species like fiery sk before they are reported in SJ (note: discussions on southern species’ migrations are more complex as southern species take up year-round residency in NJ). The distribution of Ocolas suggests that their entrance point into NJ is through CMY. - jm]

Incidental sightings while birding in the park.

1:20 to 2:30 pm. Sunny. Gardens at a private residence.

3rd Sleepy Orange of the fall

[Ward's reports from his garden hint (at least) at the possibility of another northward expansion of sleepy orange in the state. We had only two previous reports of the species from BUR – from Claire Campbell and Tom Bailey in 2019. Individuals in North Jersey are generally considered wanderers from the south and that seemed also the source of our individuals until the last few years. But Steve Glynn and others proved it overwinters in Dix WMA, and there is (or was?) also apparently an overwintering colony at Bowman's Hill Wildflower Reserve in PA just across the Delaware. The increase of sightings in South Jersey over the last few years of caterpillars (Beth Polvino's garden in CMY, Lucy Hooper's garden in GLO, and elsewhere) suggest the species is on the brink of being declared the most recent southern butterfly colonizing the state. jc]

1 hour observations, 2-3 pm, 83 degrees and sun. Walked the open field area with asters as main nectar source.

After nine days away from home, it was delight to find the garden still active with bees, hoverflies, and a respectable number of butterflies for our yard in mid-October. Blue lobellia a main attractant. PVST circling through several times during the day but not landing – couldn't find a flower whose landing spot and/or nectar fit its search image?

Mostly the same bflys as 10/14 but with some new additions.

Wonderful warm sunny day in the yard with great diversity of butterflies. My FOY red-spotted purple seen in the yard which is species 39 for 2021. Still hoping for another species or two to finish out the year. Monarchs came early and flew through all day with about 30 roosting here tonight. I'd estimate >100 Monarchs flew through today and stopped to nectar. Filmed a monarch caterpillar coming out of it's egg. So cool to actually watch through the macro lens of my camera. Clouds of skippers with a low estimate count of 175 for sachem skippers.

Nice to see a bit more activity than yesterday. The Question Mark was enjoying bananas. Still hoping for Painted Lady and White-M to round out the year.

The tartarian aster is the only non-native aster in our yard but it is currently stealing the show with pollinator activity. Most of the butterflies I sighted today were on this plant plus a myriad of bees, wasps and hover flies. Blue wood aster comes in a close 2nd with pollinator activity and this is where I found the American copper. I counted 12 Black swallowtail cats on the fennel and dill.

First Summer Azure here since 9/20. M. Cloak seemed to be looking for a spot to spend the winter as it was trying to get into the crawl space (unsuccessfully).

[Interesting note about the mc. Overwintering mc's can make for wonderful mid-winter surprises while working with woodpiles, boards and such. -jm]

Very warm and sunny day. Sachems continue to be very abundant.

Smith's Woods section, around 10:00-10:30.
9 Black swallowtail caterpillars still remain on parsley in the host plant garden.

After 5 days of gray cloudy and misty weather it was good to have some sun in the afternoon. About 30 black swallowtail caterpillars on rue, monarch caterpillars on common milkweed, monarch eggs on tropical milkweed, question mark eggs and caterpillars on hackberry. Also, cloudless sulphur caterpillar found on the senna along with a sleepy orange chrysalis. Spicebush swallowtail chrysalis found a few days ago on a pot & given to KT to overwinter along with a black swallowtail chrysalis found on the lamb's quarter that I had cut down. Hayhurst's scallopwing caterpillar continues. Low estimate on sachem skippers.

First sunny day in over a week, but not many butterflies, despite plenty of flowers.

So excited to see a long-tailed skipper when I got home today!

4 Black Swallowtail cats on Fennel. With butterflies being so quiet in the garden, this White-faced Plushback (one of the hoverflies/flower flies) stole the show, nectaring on Aromatic Aster.

[Great looking bug! -jm]

Spent a few minutes in the garden this afternoon when sun finally broke through. Lots of shade in the gardens this time of year which doesn’t help numbers.

[The dun sk is only a few days shy of our log's record LOY of 10/18/15. -jm

The common checkered skipper was on an Aromatic aster. The female Zabulon skipper is on the Penta (not sure if this picture is adequate). Have not seen many of these at all this year. There are still at least 6 Black Swallowtails cats on the fennel and dill.

[The photo is more than adequate to show off a lovely fresh looking f. zab. Nice find! -jm]

Calm, mid 70's and sun. Barbara describe the yard as "vibrating." The frost asters were humming with bees and wasps and loaded with bflys. Sachem pestering made it almost impossible to get a photo of the tawny-edged ("can you find the tawny-edged in this picture?"). I spent close to an hour finding it, having it flee from sachems, and relocating it before I could get a decent photo.

Lovely bright, warm and sunny day. Lots of Sachems on what is left of Butterfly Bushes and Zinnias.

This immaculate Red Admiral was attracted to rotting Persimmon before I spooked it off.