August 2016 Sightings

A Great Spangled Fritillary may have quickly passed through the front yard. I needed to see it slightly better.

All but one Cabbage White & one Zab observed by Pat, while I explored CM County today.

There were swallowtails and a Red-spotted Purple on this road trip - BSF (1 Spicebush Swallowtail), Woodbine (a spice and a Red-spotted Purple) and Court House-Dennisville Road (a tiger and a spice).

Was surprised to find two Spicebush Swallowtails in this salt marsh environment.

Was surprised to find a Red-banded Hairstreak in this yard. It definitely was new for this location in 2016.

I was out weeding. Partly sunny, late afternoon, SW winds.

Small, early instar.

Delaware Skipper in Hibiscus blossom. Fresh male and female Horace's Duskywing.

2 black swallowtail Chrysalises, 3 tiny Monarch Cats on Swamp Milkweed, Mating Monarch's, FOY Red-spotted Purple on rotten fruit, New to yard & life butterfly for me ~Tawny Emperor who was on rotten fruit and new to yard butterfly ~Least Skipper Sunny, Hot & humid temps mid 90's wind winds abut 8 MPH

A good weekend for butterflies in the backyard! The count rivals yesterday's but with a few different species. I was unable to ID a duskywing… sigh.

Lots of mating in the garden today: Black Swallowtails, Spicebush Swallowtails, and at 5:30 pm 2 Monarchs mating. 3 fruit dishes are really stealing the show!

It was challenging to find butterflies in the searing heat and even the Common Wood-Nymphs in the shade would not fly much when flushed!!

Sightings from the main entrance pathway between garden and green building. Very small patch of NY Ironweed hosted all of the skippers.

Spent roughly 1/2 hour here between the garden and main entrance pathway. 2:15 to 2:50 p.m. Very hot and sunny. Mid 90's. Also observed 3 Snowberry Clearwings and 1 Hummingbird Clearwing.

With a quick stop, I found 6 butterfly species.

Some of the Spicebush Swallowtails are fairly fresh while others look ancient.

There were 5 butterfly species in this scorched back yard - all in the shade at the edges.

There were swallowtails and Cabbage Whites on this journey - Woodbine (a spice, 3 Cabbage Whites and a swallowtail species), Rte. 47 (a Cabbage White) and Downtown CMCH (a Cabbage White and a spice).

Very hot, humid 98 degrees. Variegated frit appeared to be ovipositing on violets. Spicebush was a female. Monarch egg on tropical milkweed.

Backyard garden. Red-banded Hairstreaks were nectaring on Mountain Mint.

Spent most of the day here. Three FOYs for this garden: Pearl Crescent, Hackberry Emperor, and Cloudless Sulphur. This was the first Cloudless since 2012 and only the 2nd in the last 7 years. The Southern bug was quite at home nectaring on Lantanas & Mexican sunflowers. Also found 2 Monarch cats on Tropical Milkweed.

Giant swallowtail was a surprise. Flew right in front of me, I could have touched it. I first noticed the bold yellow line the whole way across the body and wings. I had an excellent look, although brief; I didn't see the underside. It landed on a butterfly bush, but immediately took off and flew into my neighbor's yard. It was in really good shape, not ragged or worn. However, my son, who has become a little interested in butterflies, said he saw this one about half an hour earlier and "wondered what had that great yellow stripe."

This butterfly is seen around this area on occasion. The last time I saw one in this area was in August 2014 in Chip Krilowicz's yard in Haddonfield. Also saw the one Dave Amadio had at Wheelabrator in Gloucester County the other year.

I have checked several times today, but haven't seen it again.

[Moderator's Note: Congratulations to Jean on the superb find. This is our first giant swallowtail of 2016. Although the species has never been more than a sometime stray in South Jersey, it seems to have made something of a comeback in North Jersey over last decade or so. This year there have been multiple reports of it on the North Jersey Sightings Log – a couple in late May/early June and more recently regular reports since mid-July. Almost all of these come from Sussex and Warren Counties. Will we see another down here this year? Let's hope so! jc]

Two more FOY's for this garden: Swarthy Skipper & Variegated Fritillary. First V.Frit. since 2012. Also a season high species total of 16. Besides one adult Monarch, there were 5 cats now on Tropical Milkweed. Some species despise flash photography as was the case with this male Zabulon Skipper photographed on Coleus leaf.

A Monarch and Black Swallowtail egg-laying.
A record number of species for my 3-year-old gardens!

The flower gardens are excellent right now. One of the Am. Snouts appeared to be ovipositing on hackberry leaves.

Discovered a Cloudless Sulphur passing through the property.

2 Black ST females, at least one was laying eggs on Fennel. One of the 2 Broad-wings was captured by a crab spider as was one of the Aaron's. The Summer Azure was quite small, about the size of an E. Tailed Blue.