August 2016 Sightings

Leading a children's butterfly program, 10:00 am.

The Monarch was a female and she was laying eggs.

Loads of nectar in this garden on a sunny day, but almost no butterflies. They must be spraying in this area!

This was another great skipper spot.

Only saw swallowtails on this trip - Head of River (1 Spicebush Swallowtail), Belleplain State Forest (2 tigers and 2 spices), Woodbine (2 tigers) and Rte. 47 (1 tiger).

Discovered 18 butterfly species and over half of them were skippers (10 species). The Spicebush Swallowtails are growing in numbers (20) and they are quite varied on the dorsal side of their hind wings.

FOY Little Yellow, 3 males and a female.

[Excellent find by Cynthia A – the first little yellows on our Sightings Log in 2016. Could this be an invasion year of this southern irruptive? jc]

I looked for Satyrium Hairstreaks (especially, Striped Hairstreak - no luck). Did find plenty of Appalachian Browns and Dion Skippers.

[This is our highest count of Appalachian browns this year. The next highest count by one observer in one site is 18 also by Will at this spot. Good work! jc]

There was plenty of nectar and few butterflies.

Both E. Tiger and Spicebush ST seem numerous everywhere.

The garden, then the dirt road as I walked awhile. Partly sunny, afternoon, 83 degrees, light SE winds. Garden had lots of nectar!

Conducting a children's program in the pavilion, monarch flew by us.

Sunny but not too hot or humid. Couple of black swallowtail eggs and one cat on parsley. Variegated Frit. not seen in this garden for a couple of years. Monarch laying eggs mostly on my neighbor's common milkweed, but did cross the street to check out ours.

Excellent gardens w/ a wonderful variety of species

One pre-pupal Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

It was another delightful day of observing the behavior of skippers!

The meadow and milkweed patch behind my property was mowed today. Oh well.

Many of the butterflies were on Sweet Clethra in the parking lot, as was a large Argiope spider waiting in her web.

1.8 mile loop from historic side to Smith's Woods and back around to start; mid afternoon.
Swallowtails on butterflybush.

There were Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, a Red-spotted Purple and Cabbage Whites on this trip - Head of River (2 tigers and a Spicebush Swallowtail), BSF (2 spices and a Red-spotted Purple), Woodbine (1 tiger and 2 spices) and Downtown CMCH (4 tigers and 9 Cabbage Whites).

There were swallowtails and Cabbage Whites on this journey - Head of River (an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail), Belleplain (a tiger, a Spicebush Swallowtail and a Cabbage White), Rte. 47 (a tiger), Court House-Dennisville Road (a tiger) and CMCH (2 tigers and 8 Cabbage Whites).