June 2018 Sightings

Sunny in the afternoon, hot & humid. Another black ST released. Red-spotted purple in cherry tree.

Was finishing up some weeding in the garden and saw this newly hatched beauty on the Baptisia. Also have American lady caterpillars on my pussy toes.

Late day obs. 4-5:20 p.m. 83 degrees and mostly cloudy. Deer flies just starting here and ticks, especially nymphs are terrible off trail. Be prepared! Grass Skippers were: Zab 9 males 2 females, Sachem 2 males, 3 females, Crossline 1 male 1 female, Peck's male.

[Nice finds and totals by Dave, including our FOY crossline skippers for 2018. jc]

Yard continues to be exceptionally sparse of butterflies.

Checked on the Sleepy Orange colony and found two fresh individuals. More to come!

Report also includes the common numbers of Cabbage Whites and Orange Sulphurs flying at the nearby farm fields.

[Kudos to Steve for another FOY for 2018: little glassywing. jc]

Euro Skippers just starting to emerge.

[Another FOY for our log. Good find, Steve! jc]

Also had another dark swallowtail that got by me before my brain could function. Likely Spicebush here.

12:30 to 2 pm.

[This is our new latest-date for sleepy duskywing, by one day: previous latest = 6-1-13 and 6-1-14. The individual Tom found and photo'd looks like it has worked hard to earn its longevity! jc]

The Black Swallowtails active together, flying very fast up and down and alighting on various garden plants. Present for about an hour off and on. My tentative ID Eastern Tailed blue: very small size, prominent white border.

Excellent activity with most butterflies enjoying the blooming dogbane. Both male and female Bronze Coppers on parade.

[Our first bronze coppers of 2018! Good monitoring of these colonies, Steve. jc]

10:45 to 12 noon. Only butterfly seen was an Elfin sp. which I never got a good look at and disappeared before photo could be taken.

Mid-morning visit and about 2 hours of searching. Very low activity, but my timing may have been too early as I had more activity later at another Bronze Copper colony site.

Walked around the ponds between the two powerline cuts. The ponds have more water in them than I can remember seeing before. I was rained out after 1 1/2 hours.

[Nice list, Brian – including our first northern cloudywings in almost a year (last find by Dolores Amesbury in her yard 6-28-17). jc]

Incidental sighting in mid-afternoon.

10 am to 1 pm. Cool, mostly overcast with occasional breaks of sun, & windy. Incidental sightings while working on projects.

What seems our yard's sole monarch caterpillar (reported last week, on same milkweed plant, now two leaves lower down) has tripled in length, from 4 mm to 13 mm, in 6 days – and is in 3rd instar. Also a black swallowtail cat on parsley.

The yard's FOY RS Purple was laying eggs only on beach plum.

82 degrees & sunny, but windy. One Red Admiral was fresh and the other worn. Monarch was near the pump house at the end of the trail. Another skipper here on white clover but took off before a look. Powerline cut un-passable and is chigger haven as well as ticks. Black ST eggs on fennel in the garden.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on (huge) Nodding Thistle; vacant lot across from Medford Leas
Viceroy (m?) displaying on Hummingbird Summersweet (Clethra) in a Medford Leas courtyard

Monarch cats have a low survival rate in my yard, so occasionally I bring in a newly hatched cat. Today was the earliest I have had one emerge. In the late afternoon after it got its act together, it headed north.

Eastern comma landed on the back of my leg while leading a nature walk. My attendees said it was very ragged and worn. One participant took a photo so I could see it.

Nice to finally see a decent showing of butterflies.
Cloudywing wouldn’t stay still long enough to ID or photograph.

[Kudos to Dolores for our FOY Aaron's skipper for 2018! It is also our latest-ever FOY for this species by two days over 6-3-16. jc]

Azures in the holly grove near ponds as well as in sunny garden, Very actively flying low, then up into tops of red cedars, down again. Surely more than the pairs I count as 2.

The monarch cat we've been tracking since 5/30 continues on same individual common milkweed Long front tentacles indicate it has moved into 4th instar.

[This is our first bog copper of 2018 – and the first in nearly a year: last report 6-27-17 by Steve Glynn at Atsion Lake, BUR. jc]