January 2021 Sightings

Harvey Tomlinson

Bob and Steph Brown's garden
Cape May County, NJ

This mourning cloak was found and photographed by the Browns. They disturbed it while getting wood from their wood pile. The photo they sent me was in a .heic file which isn't supported by this log's software.
First Butterfly of the Year!

[Congratulations to them! Yes, first butterfly of 2021. Lep Log (MD, VA, DC) has a contest for first m cloak of year. Ours might have come earlier than theirs – although they have had a cloudless sulphur. jc]

  • Mourning Cloak 1

Tom Reed

Coral Ave. dune crossing, Cape May Pt.
Cape May County, NJ

Sunny, ca. 40ºF, winds NW 5 mph. Monarch seen briefly over dunes at St. Peter's, headed toward town. Not in view long enough to say much about its condition; left wondering how long this one's been around / if it arrived from elsewhere / was recently released?

[Intriguing find! This is our 5th January record for monarch in our log's history, 2008-2021. We have two finds from the Barnegat Christmas Bird Count – one by Rick Radis and others on 1-1-12 and another (photo'd) by Tom Bailey and Jeff Ellerbusch on 1-3-16 (a record-breaking warm month with many butterfly reports). We also had two records of the species in CMY in 2012 (another very warm month with many butterfly reports): Bill Schuhl found one nectaring in a garden at Coral & Cambridge Ave on Jan 8 that year and Michael O'Brien found one on Whildlin Ave on Jan 12.

So far this colder – but not very cold – January we have had only one other butterfly report: Harvey T's report below. However, we had Mark Garland's report of a monarch at the Point two weeks ago: 12-26-20. Could Tom's sighting possibly be that same individual? jc]

  • Monarch 1

Brian Johnson

My yard
Cape May County, NJ

Found this roosting Mourning Cloak in the barn when organizing some scrap lumber. I saw one in December flying around a tree that had moth bait on it. Same bug?

[Good to see! jc]

  • Mourning Cloak 1

Mourning Cloak

Charisse Rudolph

Cape May Beach Section, Villas,NJ
Cape May County, NJ

My dog had a cabbage white butterfly hanging on his leg in our garage! We grew cabbage this fall so I can only assume a caterpillar got in our garage from the garden rubbish in our trash cans and when my husband started heating the garage to paint it, the butterfly emerged from its chrysalis.

[An intriguing find! jc]

  • Cabbage White 1

Cabbage White

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