April 2020 Sightings

A quick early afternoon walk around the preserve.

[Congrats to Brian for reporting our first orange sulphur of the year. Our last orange sulphur report was made by Brian on 11/26/19 at North Burden Hill rd. - jm]

Marilyn and I at mid afternoon. Partly sunny, 54 degrees, 6 to 16 mph NNE winds.

I believe all of the anglewings were qm's. Where are the commas?

11:30. Full sun with wind gusts in the 40's.

First Mourning Cloak in our yard for years!

1:00 - 3:00. I saw what I thought was a lady fly by and then land. It took quite a long slow stalk to find the lady; I hope the photo explains. I believe the wind kept the action down.

[This is our FOY American lady. Nice to see! jc]

Another surprisingly cooperative Orangetip. Picture was taken with my phone.

All the Henry's Elfins were on a single holly tree.

More Henry's Elfins in one spot than either of us has ever seen before. At least 100. Gale of wind blowing and quite cool conditions made for easy viewing and photographing along sheltered edges of this road. Many active ground nests of Cellophane Bees (probably Colletes inaequalis) along side trails. Blue Corporal Skimmers (im) flying. Serenaded by Pine and Yellow-throated Warblers, Blue-gray Gnatcatchers, and heard one Louisiana Waterthrush.

The lady visited while I was working on the property. I have seen three Am. ladies this spring and two have been in my relatively quiet back yard.

3-4 pm after working in the garden— sun was intermittent. Short walk to powerline cut only. One orangetip flying just outside the garden and even through it.

This road is about 1 mile west of First Avenue. No luck getting a picture of the Sleepy. I tried.

[Nice to have another FOY – our second skipper and duskywing of 2020. Nice find, Brian! jc]

The Swallowtail was pudding close to Rt.49. It was still there when I got back from a 1 hour walk.

[Our FOY of this beautiful, widely-loved butterfly. Thank you, Brian! jc]

M. Cloak sunning on roof.

I have not been visiting Mac these past weeks as it has now become as busy as a Wawa parking lot (except lots more dogs and bikes). Henry's come in many forms. Mac often produces the greenest ones in the Cape.

[Very cool shot of green highlighted form of Henry's. Cech and Tudor note that this form is found most often in Atlantic coastal populations. jc]

Obs. made from 1:40 to 3:30, 65-67 degrees, partly to mostly cloudy.

Very surprised to not see any anglewings. White-M was a nice early season find.

[Yes, that is our 4th earliest FOY in 13 years. One FOY on March 30 and two on April 1 previously. Good find, Steve! jc]

American Snout up in Dwarf Hackberry (Celtis tenuifolia) tree. Buds of tree barely showing.

All sightings between 12 & 2 pm.

sunny, around 55° F, warm in the forest, cold on the bay.

Tough for bfly people, but almost all of the powerlines in the area have been cut and had little action. This particular usual early hotspot did not show a bfly on the powercut, but there were bugs on road. There were about six Henry's that kept messing about in the top of a tall pine. All the bflys were interested in being high rather than low.

Enjoyed this sampling of early Spring butterflies!

With Annie and Marilyn - Partly sunny, 64 degrees, 6 mph north winds. My FOY for Orange Sulphur. A bit early for me.

While working on property I saw the yard's FOY am. copper. It patiently waited for me to get my camera.

Obs. made from 11:45 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Glorious blue sky, sunshine, & mid 60's. Watched a pair of Juvenal's Duskywings rise high into the sky and then mate about 25 feet high in an oak tree. Photographed one of the Henry's Elfin with increased green scaling. Not as strongly colored as Jack Miller's from yesterday, but they do show up here further inland. Orangetips all males.

Had a few High flying, very large Azures ?

Weeding the garden and came across a few butterflies in the pleasant afternoon weather.

[Good to have our FOY variegated already, our 2nd earliest date for the species (4-4-17 only one earlier.) Good find, Sam! jc]