Sighting for September 14, 2023

Jack McDonough

Areas around Cape May Point
Cape May County, NJ

Sunny, N winds around 9mph. A disappointing day. A duskywing with white hindwing edging passed through a garden along Harvard Ave and was chased away by a pair of Sachem before I could grab my camera. With a good initial look through the binoculars, it appeared to be a Funereal Duskywing. I spent many hours looking for it afterwards in the surrounding gardens, but on a day with the first real northerly winds of the fall, things were busy moving. I have the small hope that perhaps I’ll see it again in the morning. If identified correctly, they are dominantly a southern species on the east coast, but have shown up during the fall in Maryland, Pennsylvania, and other nearby places (including in recent years)

[Good luck, Jack! By the numbers and good finds on this list, I am not sure everyone would call this a disappointing day ;-) jc]

  • Black Swallowtail 8
  • Cabbage White 2
  • Clouded Sulphur 5
  • Orange Sulphur 3
  • Cloudless Sulphur 45
  • Sleepy Orange 1
  • Gray Hairstreak 10
  • Eastern Tailed-Blue 2
  • 'Summer' Spring Azure 1
  • Variegated Fritillary 1
  • American Lady 14
  • Painted Lady 3
  • Red Admiral 2
  • Common Buckeye 18
  • Red-spotted Purple 2
  • Viceroy 3
  • Emperor sp. 1
  • Monarch 45
  • Duskywing sp. 1
  • Silver-spotted Skipper 2
  • Ocola Skipper 16
  • Swarthy Skipper 1
  • Least Skipper 1
  • Fiery Skipper 24
  • Tawny-edged Skipper 1
  • Sachem 300