August 2020 Sightings

Was lucky enough to see the Sleepy Orange lay eggs on a young Senna marilandica this morning. Saw a pair of Sleepy Oranges on 2 other occasions out by the meadow.

8:30 to 2:30 pm. Spent part of the time birding as well. Sweet Pepperbush in full bloom now. Gray Hairstreak nectaring on Redroot (Lachnanthes caroliniana).

6 monarch chrysalis, one male black ST released and a female visited laying eggs on fennel. Anglewing probably a QM.

A relatively good day in the yard. I hope it is the beginning of a good month!

Found both the red-banded hairstreak and the zabulon skipper on plants beside the boardwalk at Estell Manor Park. Both are first sightings for me.

Going out this AM first saw a butterfly that I couldn't ID sitting on a canna leaf. I went back inside to my references, and while it looked similar to a Silver-spotted Skipper, the markings were different. Later, I could directly compare them as both ended up together on a flower. Images below and thoughts on ID always appreciated. Increase in number of Sachems with at least 3 sets mating. FOY Painted Lady for the yard. In addition Brazilian Skipper (many), Cloudless Sulphur, Spicebush Swallowtail and American Snout caterpillars all continue on their host plants.

["Beth's magic garden has done it again. This time we get to adventure into the unknown. This bug certainly resembles a silver-spotted, but has significant differences which are clearly not produced by wear. Besides the obvious pattern differences, there are more subtle ones like the difference in the eye-ring. Is it a hybrid? If so, what are the two species?" - jm]

What a difference a change in months can make. I abandoned the jobs list and spent the bulk of the day from 10 until 7:00 doing slow lap after slow lap around the yard (I am glad on one was watching). One of first bflys I saw was a mint fresh Delaware that was so beautiful I went inside for the camera. I never found the bug again, but it did get me walking and searching. Almost every lap produced a new species, and it is likely that I would have missed many of the species had I not spent the day searching (the juniper was only present for 3 minutes as was the 10:00 rsp. ). I got to know some of bugs quite well; one red-banded hs spent over 4 hours on one cut-leaf coneflower. I was surprised by sudden appearance of so many sk species.The last new species was a m. cloudless that blasted through the yard close to 6:00.

3:00-4:00pm

Yard’s highest count for Red-banded hairstreaks.

1:00-2:30pm

Late afternoon. Red-spotted Purples were at the fruit dish.

Lots of eggs and tiny Monarch caterpillars. Plus female Monarch laying more eggs. AT LAST! Have had male Monarchs in the garden since June 26, but 0 females until July 21. Did a Red-banded Hairstreak tally at 3 pm (21) and another at 5 pm (43); seems they're showing up more once the garden is not so blazing HOT. Tawny Emperor cats still on Hackberry.

Two apparent male PVSTs – one with torn wing, seen last few days; other new here, as far as we can tell.

Obs. made from 2:30-6 Clouds with some nice sunny breaks. Also had a couple of Hackberry specialists buzzing around high in the trees, likely Snouts or Hackberry Emperors. Had one adult Black Swallowtail & two cats on Rue.

Red-spotted Purples on fruit dish. RB Hairstreaks & SS Skipper on Mountain Mint.

FOY Cloudless Sulphur depositing eggs on Partridge Pea.

Monarch activity finally picking up. 3 females laying eggs on the common milkweed.

Monarch appeared to be laying eggs on our common milkweed plants!

First 12 spotted skimmer for the backyard.

Peak flight beginning. Did a roadside dial count today of the Sleepy's, but held off on diving into the primary senna patch. I'll do that next weekend, on Sunday, which will correlate with the timing of last year's survey count.

Big numbers though today, exceeding 100 individuals of both Sleepy Orange and Cloudless Sulphurs. A new brood of Pearl Crescents also quite common. Count includes numbers of individuals found in several areas and access points into the broader Dix preserve. Happy to see a good number of Monarchs today as well.

A nice add-on surprise was a male Sedge Wren proudly singing within the senna patch and popping out briefly for a photo-op.

Spotted these later in the afternoon.

11:40 to 12:30 pm. Sunny, hot & humid.

7:45 to 11 am. Mostly sunny, hot & humid.