December 2020 Sightings

December sulphurs are underrated beauties. The Admiral was a fly-by.

[Thanks for the reports. Good to have some December records. jc]

Late morning, mostly sunny, upper 40's. Despite adequate sun, it was pretty quiet here. When flushed, the bflys quickly hunkered down again.

Cool, sunny, breezy.

[Good finds, Mike. Can either of these species linger to the end of the month this year? Our latest-ever date for Am lady is 12-25-15; latest-ever for red admiral is 12-31-11. jc]

While birding a Red Admiral came flying by. It just kept on going.

At around 8:42 PM, presumably dying on the ground on the oak leaf litter.

[Your good photo of this surprising night-time find seems to indicate a fresh individual w/o obvious damage. Could it possibly be roosting and waiting for the next day's sun? jc].

Sunny mid 50's. I did not get to many places today as I spent almost 2 hours trying to get a photo of one of at least 6 green darners. The one I finally got to see and photograph was munching on a honeybee. Quite the odd mid-December scene.

[Nice shot of predator and prey! jc]

Nice day, sunny and 57 degrees. Enjoyed a walk with Harvey Tomlinson early on, who's submitted some sighting numbers, but then enjoyed these afterward.

[The monarch is our first in December this year. Will it be NJ's last in 2020? jc]

Steve Glynn may add to this as I left early.
3 Admirals and a Lady sp.

Obs. made from 1:45 to 2:30, Sunny 57 with SSW13. Was able to photograph an Eastern Comma today in a warm spot along the trail. Also flushed up two other medium sized Nymphalids. likely Commas or Admirals. ( This looks like a new late date for the sp.)

[Yes, Dave, this comma breaks our latest- ever date by nearly a week: 12-5-15. It is also the northernmost butterfly reported in NJ this December and the only December 2020 report from outside CMY (so far). Good find! jc]

2:10 to 2:50 pm. 63 degrees & partly sunny.

[The race to find the northernmost NJ December 2020 butterfly is on! ;-)

Whether you realized it or not, Tom, you are the new place-holder. Congrats! jc]

Saw it flying, got out to chase. It landed almost on my boot at a dandelion and flipped away into a private field. Good, confirming downward look at it, though.

Sunny and 63 degree today, and disappointed not to find anything else flying in the region I searched.

50 mph drive-by of a fly-by… Sulphur headed north on west shoulder of Route 47 about a mile or so south of the Bayshore Road intersection at about 10:30am. (Morning a mix of clouds and sun, warm temps pushing 60°F.)

[Good find. This gives CMY its 7th species for December 2020.

Our log's latest-ever date for the species is 12-14-15, found by Steve Glynn in Cedarville, CUM. We found 14 species for the log that very warm December. jc]

The 2 Common Buckeyes were almost incidental to an exceptional day in mid December for Odes with a total of 4 species (Common Green Darner, Autumn Meadowhawk, Citrine Forktail, and Familiar Bluet) between two Cumberland and Cape May County sites.

No deerflies! I was wondering if a sleepy orange might wake up in today's warmth, but was happy to settle for both male and female cloudless. As the photos show, both were mint fresh. I was out all day and spent time in a handful of spots in CUM and Belleplain area, but Dix was the only place I saw bflys. I saw green darners in 3 locations, but the shock of the day was a autumn meadowhawk at Dix.

[Nice! This gives us three counties for cloudless today! jc]

Obs. made from 1:55 to 3:15, 62 mostly cloudy and WNW16-20. My only butterfly on this warm afternoon was a Red Admiral that flew right by me but kept on going. With the changing weather predicted this week this may be all for the season.

A male cloudless circled around the yard a few times, landing briefly here and there, about 1:30 pm. Sunny, ~67 degrees. This breaks our yard's latest date for the species by two weeks (11-30-91, 29 years ago).

[Our new latest NJ monarch for 2020…and with the weather predicted for mid-week, it might be the last for a while and perhaps even the last this year. jc]

Astoundingly, this female monarch was photographed at Cape May Point today, December 26, 2020, a day with high temperature in the low 30s after a mid-20s overnight low. She was alive, basking in the sun at a spot sheltered from the wind, moving her wings a bit to better align with the sun. We didn't move her, tag her, or even touch her – she seems to know what to do.

We don't know of many better symbols of hope and determination than this one. Here's hoping that the coming new year brings better luck to both monarchs and humans.

[An amazing find to end our 2020 year of sightings, 13 days after the previous report of any monarch or any other butterfly. It is not the latest December monarch we have ever recorded (12-31-11), but under the circumstances, it is one of the most remarkable. Thank you, Mark! Keep up the excellent work at the Point! jc]

[1-12-21 Update: Tom Reed found a monarch in Cape May Point today. See January reports. jc]