Butterfly sightings for July 2007

My last sighting for a Dainty Sulphur in Wood County was August of 1987.

The small hill that is a prairie preserve is always a good spot for spotting butterflies who enjoy the flowers that are in bloom now.

Leps seen at Cook Arboretum, Avon Bottoms, and various places in SW Rock County. American Snout was a life butterfly!!

Saw 2 Whooping Cranes at Sandhill.

Also heard my first cicada.

The Juniper Hairstreaks were all in the same Red Cedar about 25 ft. the air. I watched the three males sparring in the tree for about ten minutes and got good looks at them with binoculars during their short rest periods. Nearly two hours later I came back and checked and they were still at it! 1:30-3:30 pm.

An exciting surprise...

A very successful SWBA field trip to Cherokee! Glenda Denniston kindly provided the photos she took of a Viceroy caterpillar and a very impressive White-lined Sphinx Moth.

Saw a large robberfly with a bumblebee for lunch!

I saw Little Yellows laying eggs on partridge pea.

Looking mainly for robberflies today. The photo is of Albibarbefferia [Efferia] albibarbis, a very recognizable robber in dry, sandy areas.

Stopped for a quick look 6:30-7:15. The first thing we saw was the Dainty Sulphur who found a nice cool perch in the shade.

About 90 degrees. Thanks to Ann Thering, Glenda Denniston, Joan Braune and Tod Highsmith (who counted on his birthday!), other counters and especially Dave Fallow for your wonderful efforts in difficult conditions. We found 42 species including American Snout, Buckeye and Variegated Fritillary.

The Dainty Sulphur was in a weedy area just outside of my prairie restoration project that I planted last fall. I'm expanding the planting and was plowing up additional ground and the sulphur kept hanging around in spite of me driving through with the tractor every few minutes. This is the same spot as the sighting from July 1st.

Butterfly was flying around our small ornamental tree, and landed on our window,we observed it for around 20 minutes and when we went to take a picture, it closed its wings two different times and then flew away.

Also saw numerous dragonflies.

The checkered skipper was between Bascom and North Halls. The snout was in the Botany garden, where I think I may have caught a glimpse of that pipevine swallowtail reported earlier. Not bad butterflying for just taking a walk over lunch break.

Seen in my front yard...

The Wild Indigo Duskywing was laying eggs on Canadian Milk Vetch. We also saw 6 other duskywings. The American Snout sat on my car antenna and allowed all to photograph it. Also saw one Comma/Question Mark sp.

Beautiful cool morning. Checking on some restoration work next to wet brushy areas. Walked back through a bit of prairie and wet meadow. Found the American Snout in the gravel driveway. Also saw a lot of Lyre-tipped spreadwing damselflies, Eastern Forktails, Calico and Halloween Pennant dragonflies. Showy Tick Trefoil, Purple Milkwort, Joe Pye weed, Swamp Milkweed and Allegheny Monkey Flower led the botanical pagent of purple today.

I mainly hiked sandy trails through barren areas. Most of the skippers were in an open area with lots of Monarda where they were very abundant. They also were found nectaring on Spotted Knapweed along the roadsides.

A brief stop produced a beautiful Sleepy Orange.

SWBA's joint field trip with The Prairie Enthusiasts & Madison Audubon found 5 species of fritillaries despite the strong winds. Thanks to Rich Henderson and TPE for creating beautiful Regal Fritillary habitat!

The Junipers were a first for me and they were all nectaring on flowers in a five foot area and only twenty feet away from Juniper trees.

The Harvester, Gray Comma, and Compton Torts were highlights for me.

Bakken's pond is right across the river from Iowa county so I just included the few sightings there.

Short trip to look for the Juniper Hairstreaks. These are just the highlights.

This was the first, and so far only painted lady I've seen this year.

All of the 3 Checkered Whites I've seen this summer in Madison have been females...

All sightings occurred either in my yard or near the lake between 10 am and 2 pm.

Quick jaunt between meetings around the excellent visitor center!

This was my first sighting of a Common Checkered-Skipper. All individuals were flying erratically in a harvested oat field, and only briefly stopped to rest or nectar.

This was my first Juniper Hairstreak, a butterfly I've been wanting to see. It was on the gas grill on my friend's deck! There was a stand of red cedars nearby.

I am fairly new to butterflying and this was the first time I had seen an Eastern Tailed-Blue, 'Summer' Spring Azure, and Peck's Skipper!

He seemed overly excited about the red phlox.This is the first year that the phlox has had a chance to bloom because of deer.

A very busy few hours of butterflying! The weather was beautiful and there were so many butterflies that I couldn't keep up with them.

Found American Lady lunching on Purple Coneflower.

We are raising Monarchs, having become a listed

Saw this on a leaf at the edge of a spot of grasses next to the woods, with a school yard just past the grassy edge.

Nectaring on flowering clover.

Caterpillar on Pipevine (Aristolochia macrophylla).

Usually when I try to get close they fly away...today was great! I got quite a few nice pictures...it was like he wanted me to take his picture...

Regularly seeing a dozen or more spread throughout flowering weeds and tall grass surrounding yard.

Saw this for the first time in this area flitting about and perching on tree leaves. Beautiful in the sunlight.

This area is beautiful and shows a great diversity of butterfly species.

This is actually a two day list July 28-29. On this butterfly and cicada trip, we also heard five species of cicadas.

After I parked I counted 7 Dainty Sulphurs, 2 Little Yellows, 1 Sleepy Orange, and 1 Common Sootywing while getting my equipment out of the car. This was the most Dainty Sulphurs I have ever seen.

Stopped briefly to look for robber flies and saw this species by the parking lot.

The skippers were nectaring on Liatris, various Verbenas, and Monarda.

They were working the hawkweed and other wildflowers in small groups (4-6).

The Dainty Sulphurs and the Fiery Skipper were in an old disturbed field that had been cut some time in July. Hoary Alyssum was abundant but there was some bare soil with lots of low growing chickweed. This was the last place I stopped and I could have spent a couple more hours there. There were more butterflies here than in the nice flowering sedge meadows. I think I saw a Checkered White, but wasn't 100% sure, so probably will check back here later.

Alternated its attention between our butterfly bushes and the parsley while in the yard.

All of the Fiery Skippers were in flower gardens.

Stopped for an hour on the way home. Lots of Liatris in flower! I was surprised to see my first Leonard's Skipper of the year and then I saw the Gray Hairstreak who looked newly emerged!