May 2018 Sightings

Both Pearl Crescents seen between 9:15-9:30 this morning.

[Congratulations to Dolores on our FOY pearl crescents of 2018. Nice find! jc]

Late in the day, 5:10-6 pm. Orangetip just outside of butterfly garden nectaring on dandelions. Possible pearl crescent, but didn't see it well enough to be sure.

Every year I haunt this spot for Hessel's. So far, no luck, but I keep hoping. I have only seen Sleepy duskywing in dry areas; this one was in the thick of a swamp.

Nice to finally report Frosted Elfins. We watched a Pearl Crescent fly around us for 20 minutes and never saw it land.

From 10am-noon

[This is just our second tiger s'tail of 2018. We had only a single report in April. Hopefully, we will see lots more soon. jc]

American Lady landing frequently on host plant "Pussy Toes" and wondered if it left any eggs behind.

Until today, I had only had a few cabbage whites and sulphurs fly through. Today while working on the garden and beds I was surprised by the traffic. The gray hs, on catmint, was such a runt that I thought it was an azure. The biggest surprise was the sootywing. It's time to garden with a camera ready.

Most of the Juvenal's were along the powerline cut. Fresh Holly Azures along Tom field Rd.

[Nice job Dave. This is our first report and photo of White M hs this year.- jm]

Summer Day. My first Black-swallowtail and it was not stopping for anything.

[Congrats Harvey in reporting our first Black ST in a year that has had a very slow ST start. - jm]

Windy along the powerline. Frosted Elfins mostly kept wings tucked in tight. Activity light here with little nectar.An adventurous ride home. Alternator quit just as I entered Belleplain. Watched as the voltmeter slowly dropped during the afternoon. Nursed it home with no guages, lights etc.

[But it was all worth it to see some cool bugs and get a great Pearl Crescent photo. -jm]

New to my yard Brown Elfin while out cutting the grass. I wonder if all the the work and the cutting back of the vegetation on the bay front has contributed to this happening. Female Black Swallowtail came through also.

During bird survey of park, 7:30-11:30am
Juniper hairstreak was new for Smithville Park's species list!

39.757, -74.279
34 Cloverdale Road
Barnegat Township, NJ 08005

[Welcome to Becky and her first report to our log. We look forward to more!- jm]

Only a 1/2 hour visit. Good to see Frosted here. The duskywing, which I believe is a wild indigo, was so small I thought it was a sootywing. I have never seen a smaller one.

Sunny, light SW winds, 80 degrees or so. This was mid folate morning.

Cape May Count checking in with first-sighting of ETSW. It spent time fluttering around the past-bloom fruiting cherry tree with me admonishing it all the while "no, no, not the cherry, you silly butterfly, there's nothing there" and willing it to go to the lilacs. Yay for me, it finally did. :-)

A fly-through.

during bird survey, 8:00-11:00

[Congrats to Jen in reporting our first Silver-spotted skipper. - jm]

79-83 degrees, from 11:30-12:40
Variegated fritillary (my FOY) would not cooperate for a picture - would turn to face me straight on every time I hit the shutter, no matter where I stood.

[Congrats to Jen on her fine day that added silver-spotted skipper and variegated fritillary to our log this year. This is only the second time in our log's history that variegated frit has appeared for the first time in May. In all other years it has appeared in April or June. - jm]

Skies brightened a bit at mid day. Activity light for this date. All Orangetips were males today. Fresh male Spicebush Swallowtail flew right past me in the woods. Not a single butterfly on the Cypress Spurge.

[Dave's report of our first Spicebush Swallowtail is our second latest first date ever, only two days off of the record date of May 7 in 2009.- jm]

Spring Azures are rare in this garden. This individual never landed for a proper I.D.

Terrible light, lots of distance, way too many bramble scratches, and way way too many ticks… Still, a very cool bug.
[This FOY is 1 day off of our log's record for latest first date which occurred on 5/8/15. - jm]

Was flying inside one of the many greenhouses. I tried to coax it out but failed.

Laying eggs on both parsley and Zizia (golden alexander).