August 2016 Sightings

Hayhurst's Scallopwing is a lifer - quite unexpected. Butterfly activity was excellent - mostly on the Mountain Mint. Extraordinary variety of bees and wasps.

One dark form E.Tiger Swallowtail. Sachem was a rag. Monarch was a fresh female.

Found 19 butterfly species here today. The Northern Broken-Dash may be almost finished flying as an adult butterfly here this year. Hopefully, later there will be Southern Broken-Dashes!

Monarch flew in to nectar on white phlox and buddleia.

Red-banded Hairstreak was the Bug of the Day. I would say they were abundant. It was also the only Hairstreak.
No Monarchs - 6:30 to 10:00 am!

Mint fresh Tiger Swallowtail - so bright it almost looked like a new species.
Note for Will Kerling. Where is the Dion Skipper swamp? If you are willing to tell, contact me off list.

Strong brood of Hayhurst's Scallopwing's continues. Cloudless Sulphurs all fresh and active.

[This is our first 2016 photo of the always-hard-to-capture cloudless sulphur. Also, this is our first report – of only three reports this year – of multiple individuals. Good job, Steve and get ready, everyone, here they come! jc]

Garden maintenance - Jean was there awhile, I just a bit. Mostly cloudy, 80 degrees, lots of nectar.

There were 5 species of skippers in the early morning hours. Photos of Little Glassywing and a female Dun Skipper.

Seems the Little Yellow is laying eggs on the Partridge Pea – though we didn't realize this at the time.

[This our first photo'd little yellow of 2016 – and cool to think about the possibility of little yellow cats emerging here in coming days. Congrats to both observers. jc]

FINALLY 2 Juniper Hairstreaks. Where have the hairstreaks been?! Grateful for the swallowtails; they make the garden look busy, but numbers and diversity are still scary low compared to just a few years ago.

There were, at least, 26 butterfly species on this walk with 14 butterfly species being skippers. Found an photographed a Cloudless Sulphur, a Fiery Skipper and a Southern Cloudywing.

I completely agree with Pat's comment on low numbers and diversity. I thought maybe it was my garden which has been neglected over the years due to health issues, but the Sutton's garden is magnificent! It seems like the butterflies are concentrated in places where there is highly attractive nectar, but are present in low numbers and diversity elsewhere. Any ideas as to what is going on? Climate change? Spraying?

Hayhurst's Scallopwing seen minutes after Jack left for the afternoon. (Have a picture.)

Discovered coupled Cabbage Whites, a bright orange, Orange Sulphur and a Tawny-edged Skipper.

Even though they are common, I was very surprised to see the tailed-blue out there. This bog is only 2 acres and in the middle of a very large wooded swamp.

This trip had Eastern Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails and Cabbage Whites in it - Belleplain (3 tigers and 3 spices), Woodbine (a Cabbage White, 1 tiger and 1 spice), Rte. 47 (1 spice) and Downtown CMCH (4 Cabbage Whites, 1 tiger and 1 spice).

Found one Red Admiral at 7:15 p.m. after returning from North Jersey trip.

Question Mark laying eggs on Hops. Female Zabulon.

There was a Cabbage White and swallowtails on this trip.

First Red-Banded Hairstreak in the garden this year.

Male & female Black Swallowtail. One of the Spicebush Swallowtails was a female laying eggs on Spicebush. Cut-leafed Coneflower (which is tall and does not look likely as a hairstreak nectar plant) has begun to pull in the hairstreaks again.

A Common Sootywing was zipping around the back yard. The Question Mark was my 29th butterfly species for the day - shucks, missed 30 species by one.