August 2021 Sightings

Yellow Leaf-cup is blooming and pulling in Hayhurst Scallopwings and Zabulon Skippers once again. Clay discovered this scallopwing magnet in 2017. This year road crews mowed the shoulder brutally, but it looks like the Leaf-cup will bloom longer than usual (with lots of cut-back plants low and not yet in bloom, while others are in full bloom). They were hard to count, always on the move, or perched out of sight.

Brief visit early in the morning - primarily birding. Partly cloudy.

Brief visit early in the morning - mostly birding. Cloudy & cool.

Huge Brazilian Skipper cats seen on July 29 have all become chrysalises.

Nice mix of species on clethra blooming along road, including the first White M HS I've seen in many years; poor photo before it flew off.

[Congrats on seeing your first White M in years. Their second brood is giving us a steady trickle of reports. -jm]

I was witnessing this afternoon “The Zabulon Skipper Mating Ritual”.
Two new ones for me this year, the Eastern Comma and the little Glassywing.

[Zabs are turning up in lots of places and in good numbers lately. When this happens we sometimes take them for granted and just check them off the list. If you have not stopped and admired these gems for awhile consider taking some time to do so. - jm]

Quick walk around yard, on lunch break around 2:30.
Found 4 Black Swallowtail instars on fennel.
Little Glassywing is a first for my yard!

Afternoon observations. Conservative count on Zabs. They were quite busy doing what zabs do..

Incidental sightings while working in the yard.

Only able to spend a brief time in the garden today. 2 Black Swallowtail cats. Peeked at Brazilian Skipper cats.

BCC-Clarks, 9:30-12:30 kayak trip
Tons of sweet pepperbush in bloom, would have thought there would be tons of butterflies, but not the case.

Smith's Woods garden only, from 4:00-4:30pm.
Also saw a snowberry clearwing moth and several milkweed tussock moth cats.

2:30-3:30pm

(2:10-4:00) Made the trip to look for the roseate spoonbill, but there was a decent amount of butterfly activity around wildlife drive and the welcome center though it was cloudy. Lots of monarchs around the remaining common milkweed and likely many more salt marsh skippers than I saw - I only left the car a few times.

In garden only briefly. 1 Black swallowtail cat. American Snout cat. on Dwarf (or Georgia) Hackberry, Celtis tenuifolia – the common hackberry of CMCo. 3 Monarch cats. 1 of the Brazilian Skipper cats was now a chrysalis (no photos - cause didn't want to attract predators).

Only able to spend a short time in the yard today but found eggs which look like a small grain of rice on some of the Senna seedlings (likely either Sleepy Orange or Cloudless sulphur).

Overcast, a little breezy and on the cool side. Not much butterfly activity but did get a high count for Lumberton Leas for Zabulons.

I haven't checked on this Dion colony in a few years. It's doing good. The Sweet Pepperbush is in full bloom. It was a pleasant surprise seeing the White M Hairstreaks. I don't remember seeing them in Bear swamp before.

Tons of Zab’s and SS Skippers on Purple Loosestrife.

This moth is expanding its range northward. In 1954 the moth was not known to occur north of the Carolinas. It's now common and widespread in southern New Jersey.

Brief time in garden. 1 Black Swallowtail cat. Found 2 E. Tiger Swallowtail eggs on 2-year old Tulip Tree (that seeded under our 40 year old Tulip tree). Female Monarch laying eggs on Common Milkweed. Found 4 Brazilian Skipper chrysalises in garden (could photo 2 without pulling apart the Canna leaves and disturbing them).

First time this year finding a Sleepy orange cat -on Senna marilandica seedling. Have been seeing eggs so hopefully there will be more.

A splendid weather day in the yard and a splendid mix of butterflies! Two of the Zabulon’s were females.

[It certainly is a splendid mix! Nice to have another report of fiery sk. Let's hope these beauties are everywhere soon. - jm]

Fiery a FOY for our yard. Carolina mantid in early nymph stage.

[This is 1 of 2 reports of fiery sk today and our first outside of CMY. -jm]

Strolls at 8:30, 10:00, 2:00 and 4:00 produced more bflys than I expected including 3 FOY's for the yard: Cloudless, salt marsh sk and sootywing. Once again, observations made throughout the day from 1 location suggests that many species have preferred times to be active (although monarchs were first at 7:30 and last at 8:15) and that a one time walk-through of most locactions will not reveal all the species that are present. I recognize wanting to see 30 species in a day here is silly, but it is nevertheless fun to do. During my late afternoon walk I found that I was trying to turn a spicebush st into a black st or a rbhs into juniper hs. I did a casual late tally and found that I needed 1 more species for 30. I took one more stroll and found a fresh Horace's. When I carefully tallied last night I found that I had 29 not 30. Ha!

10-12 am stroll in the park.
High numbers of Cabbage Whites, Zabulon’s and Silver-Spotted Skippers.