June 2020 Sightings

I was glad to see the Little Wood-Satyrs since the colony that was thriving in the vacant lot next door was destroyed to make way for contruction.

9:45-11:30am; mostly clear skies, 59->62ºF, winds NW 10mph. Walked length of road from Sunset southwest to Route 347. Floored to find so many Red-banded Hairstreaks here today; many quite fresh. Groups of them were gathered on the ground, reminiscent of strong elfin days in April. Two worn elfins (Brown/Henry's) didn't offer good/long enough views but seemed notable given the date.

[Wow, that's a lot of RBHS's! Your elfins, whether brown or Henry's, would set new LOY' for either species in our log's history. Interestingly, the record for our log's history for Henry's was just broken on May 30 last weekend. Any volunteers to get some elfin photos? - jm]

I have a rule of the Garden that I didn't follow today…always take the camera!
I went out to level my bird bath and the Cannas "forest" next to it had a butterfly spin out and land on the Fence. It was a tattered Brazilian Skipper. I ran in to get the camera but by the time I got back it was gone. I wasn't going to post this but…Peer pressure prevailed.

[It is June 1st and already Harvey has recorded our second Brazilian sk of 2020. Well done! - jm]

Visited the scenic trail between 2:25 & 3:45 with more clouds than sun and low 70's. Female Zabs outnumbered males 5 to 4 this day here. Note: Parking area was severely restricted due to some drilling work. Also protesters were staged at the corner of Grove & Riverwinds. An adequate police presence kept things peaceful.

Incidental sightings in the yard.

Spent the last 1 1/2 hours walking the preserve. The Blackberry blooms had the most Butterflies. I didn't chase all of the little dark Skippers that I saw.

[One wonders what Brian might have reported had he chased down all those little dark sk's. Congrats to Brian for a great great day and a great list of skippers including three FOY's: dun, little glassywing and tawny-edged. Nice way to start June! - jm]

This butterfly was injured and unable to fly.

I was surprised to find a dusted skipper while doing volunteer work on the UU grounds. I ran back to my truck, refound the bug, and managed to get a low quality phone photo. The Unitarian Universalist grounds were required to have a drainage basin dug when the building was constructed in 2008, and Jesse Connor choose native plants and grasses for the basin plantings. There was not an area of pinelands habitat like this for miles. This example of "build it and they will come" is exciting and brings up questions as to how species populate a new and isolated area. Up until this UU dusted sk, they had only been reported in two ATL areas. The first was an EHT powerline (Jack and Jesse Connor 5/18/14) and the second was the AC airport (Clay Sutton and Jimmy Dowdell on 5/27/14 and 5/18/16).

8:45 to 10:45 am. Temp in the low 60s, sunny, breezy. After finishing a bird census, I biked 6.4 miles north on Carranza Rd to the state forest boundary.

Checked to see if Bronze Coppers are flying yet. The area's dogbane is growing nicely, but hasn't burst forth yet. Found only one pristine fresh copper today, but I suspect the larger colony will be flying come weekend. Same probably will hold for the larger emergence of Aaron's Skippers as well.

Concerning though is the overwhelming growth of crown vetch now, as it's really spreading everywhere and may spell trouble if it crowds out the host plant or the dogbane going forward.

The other small colony of Bronze Coppers found on private land appears to be lost. I spoke with the landowner and he's already cleared most of the land and where the colony is/was is being leveled this week.

[Congrats to Steve for this year's first bronze copper and first Aaron's skipper. The news about the possibility of losing a bronze copper colony is disturbing. - jm]

Spotted lantern fly nymphs found on our hops vine –about a half dozen. Spritzed with insecticidal soap which took care of them. Not sure if they dropped from a nearby tree or where they hatched from.

Butterfly garden, 2-4pm. Still overcast but 75 degrees.
Two monarch caterpillars on common milkweed in the garden are surprisingly large for this early in the season, the earliest we have ever seen at this spot.

I was surprised to see this many butterflies on such a gray and overcast morning.

15 mins spent waiting for Garden Store to open. One terrible shot of a very "tired" Azure. Actually they all look tired. Can't even venture a guess. No Cobweb or Frosted.

My Favorite spot for Hayhurst's Scallopwing. More than Cabbage Whites today. A great spot for Summer Spring Azure but I think the ones I saw were Spring. And a Snout and Sachem…been awhile on these two.

[This is our first snout report since May 2. - jm]

FOY Cloudless Sulphur for my yard. It's a record date for my yard. She was laying eggs on the Partridge pea. She stayed around until I got my camera for pictures.

[Congrats Beth on your property's new FOY record for cloudless sulphur and our log's new early record for a cloudless egg (my partridge peas are only an inch high!). - jm]

FOY Zabulon, a female, was my latest FOY ever for species in yard. FOY Red-sp Purple was also on late side.

[Many species, including rsp which had a big year in 2019, are off to a slow start. -jm]

Woodland trails at LL.

Incidental sightings at 5:30pm

Both were sighted 8 hours apart.

Butterfly garden, 3:00pm
The two Monarch cats are still on the milkweed.

The Euro count is conservative as there were plenty of patrolling Euros that made counting very difficult.

[This our first report of European sk in 2020. - jm]

Incidental sightings while in the yard today.

Figured I'd check the colony again today and see what's happening. Big mistake, as the biting flies were incredible. Crazy as I am, I still walked the senna patch. I think my swatting alerted virtually anything of my presence and made for a miserably unproductive decision. No Sleepy Orange seen today, but the Cloudless Sulphurs are off to a flying start.

One concern, noted last year by Dave Amadio as well, is that the growing maple trees are taking over the main colony site. The senna is growing nicely, but the maples will have impact to the growth I suspect, but definitely make it tough to walk the patch effectively now.

I don't know if any resources could be gained to thin the maples out, but I suspect not. Going forward, an action plan would be needed, otherwise I suspect the colony field will be overgrown and succeed into a maturing field of tree growth and the colony perhaps lost.

[Let us say that Steve was brave to go into the senna patch today instead of any other judgements about his behavior that we might make. Steve has good news about the cloudless sulphurs ("off to a flying start"), but sad news about how the site is changing. - jm]

Observed while gardening 10:30-noon.