October 2018 Sightings

Season high monarch total here. Earlier in the day, Pat photographed with her phone a Hackberry Emperor on the fruit dish. According to the early/late records this is our second latest sighting for this sp.

[Congrats to Pat on find and also on the phone documentation. Yes, this is our second latest record, and it's been quite a while since the only later one – from the AWS field trip to Palmyra Cove in BUR on 10-9-2010. Pat's find gives us only our second October record for this species. jc]

2:00-3:00pm
All observations at meadow restoration area except for 1 e.t. blue and 1 monarch.

Did survey of the colony from the roadside and from adjacent areas within Dix.

Will continue to monitor as the month cools and the colony heads into hibernation.

Good activity, but very surprised to find that Sachems have had an apparent die off.

A Long-tailed skipper continued along with Brazilian Skippers, all cats and chrysalis continue. Monarch and Common Buckeyes increasing daily with peak in afternoon. A wonderful, warm and sunny day with visitors from England (on a birding tour) visiting the gardens.

Late afternoon. Still have all stages of Monarch cats–about 10. Three Black ST cats–2 late stage and a newly hatched one on rue. No change in Giant ST chrysalises–will they overwinter at this point?

[Gochfeld & Burger and Cech & Tudor both list the overwintering stage as pupa, so that is promising. Your GST is well out of its normal range, but it would seem there's a reasonable to good chance that your rarity will make it through to spring. Let's hope so, at least! What a development that would be! Good luck, Chris! We are rooting for you – and your cool bug. Thanks for the update. jc]

Mid-day; mid 70's with partial sun. The Little Yellows, the first reported from CMY this year, were not interested in posing for photos. Combining the 4 southerners from Beth's garden (long-tailed sk, fiery, ocala and Brazilian) with the little yellows and cloudless sulphurs, we totaled 6 southern species.

[These are our first little yellows since 9/15 when Sandra Keller found five in GLO. jc]

during official bird survey of entire park

Still have all 5 cats and chrysalis. The Spicebush Swallowtail chrysalis have never eclosed so wondering if they'll be overwintering. Only a short time in garden today but found a Long-tailed skipper for third day. 4 mockingbirds working the gardens together.

Brazilian, Fiery, Long-tailed Skipper,and Ocola by 10am
Whew!

[What a list! -jm]

During public program, 10am-12.

Hackberry Emperor continued today. Pat captured this image as it landed on the car. She also captured 4 Eastern Commas sharing some rotting fruit .Monarchs continue to increase.

[Pat and Dave's report of a Hackberry Emperor is only our second October report for this species in the log's history. Will it stick around in this warm weather to tie or break our log's record of 10-9-2010? - jm]

Walked the garden before and after mowing the trail. There was probably more Soybean looper moths than Butterflies using the garden today.

Five (and very possibly six) pipevine s'tails in our yard only time we have had more than two at once. All individuals very fresh. We could not find a certain female in the group – as they chased each other around the garden and up into the trees constantly, making photo'ing tough. Verbena drew three at once a few times. See bad photo below.

Our own pipevine plant shows no sign of cats this year, but two neighbors' gardens two blocks away hold multiple plants.

3:00-4:30 (swallowtails from ~3:15 to ~4:15). Party sunny, humid, about 80 degrees.

[Until now, we have only had reports of Pipevine from Mannington Marsh and Beth Polvino's property. Our last report in 2017 for Pipevine was from the Connor's property on October 7. - jm]

A brief stroll around the property mid afternoon to end my day.

Species #41 for year Common-checkered Skipper found by Mike Crewe when we went out to look for the front yard Brazilian skipper. 2 Brazilian Skippers eclosed today. #41 species ties my high record set last year. Hoping for a few more species. First Red Admiral since 8/24. 2 Long-tailed Skippers in the yard this AM at the same time and on the same Lantana - one had no tails and one had a single left tail. Warm, sunny with winds 8-10MPH.

October 3rd was a day for the record books. A gentle northwest wind produced a river of migrating Monarchs and dragonflies (Black Saddlebags and Common Green Darners, with some Carolina Saddlebags – 1 in 10 of the Saddlebags). The flight was right down the Cape May Point dune line. Dune Crossovers were the best vantage point and put us in the epicenter of the flight. There thousands upon thousands upon thousands of Monarchs migrating south (and nectaring on Seaside Goldenrod), same for dragonflies. The flight was right overhead, but when scanning to enjoy the hawk migration, Monarchs were picked up high too! There were 100s and 100s and 100s of Common Buckeyes nectaring on Seaside Goldenrod in the dunes. Found a Brazilian Skipper chrysalis on a Canna in the Schuhl Garden.

[Pat, thanks for this fabulous report. It makes the heart pound! -jm]

A bioblitz for 4 hours along this trail on a perfect sunny day. Butterflies were on various asters, goldenrods, and bonesets.

12:10- 1:30. This location is spectacular in October. I only counted in one direction. Monarchs and Buckeyes were counted by 5's. Was happy not to think about counting on the return walk so that I could appreciate this place.

11:35-11:55. Large patch of weeds behind gas station.

1:15- 1:45. A small but wonderful weed patch.

This year is one of the biggest incursions of Common Buckeyes I've ever seen at Cape May… the photo shows a handful of the 90 (!) Buckeyes that were on this clump of Groundsel.

I believe there are two handfuls in the photo. -jm]

10:30- 11:30. Sunny, breezy, mid 70's. I saw my most spectacular Checkered sk ever; its body hairs were as blue as those of a long-tailed sk. I have never seen anything like it. Sadly it "blew" away before I could get a photo.

Wandered the yard around mid-day and then around 4:30 which is when the long-tailed sk was present. I had 20+ monarchs on each of my trips through the yard; Mexican sunflower was the favorite today. As the log has been showing, there are exceptional numbers of monarchs and ocolas.

Pat saw the Hackberry emperor one more time. Looking more worn with each passing day. An explosion in Monarchs here. Found 17 after 5 p.m. tonight, mostly on Mexican Sunflowers. This is the highest single count here in a number of years.