Recent sightings

Early afternoon. Mostly sunny. Upper seventies, calm.
Most of the Giant Swallowtails were in fields but one was in the woods where there were few flowers. I saw two different pairs of swallowtails twirling about each other close enough to touch, but did not see either actually couple. They were relatively plentiful and after a while I stopped counting for fear of counting some twice.

Mostly sunny, mid 70s, breezy. Stopped for a quick look for Fiery Skippers but stayed over an hour and found other things of interest.

Incidental while pulling yet more sweet clover. I am pretty sure that we had a male Sachem come up and land on a prairie dock but as this would be the first Sachem of my life I want to wait until I get a picture and can have it confirmed

Cloudy, with teases from the sun; high 70s, light breeze.

In between the rain.

4:30-5:00. High near 80 but very humid and little wind.

Very low activity due to cool temps and overcast.

70s, partly Cloudy, breezy

72, cloudy, on and off rain. Stopped for about 30 minutes.

Right after the rain, 80 deg. cloudy, humid

The Joe Pye Weed continues to attract pollinators of all kinds.

Very hot and muggy. I did get to see one of the Zebra Swallowtails by the entrance and tried to follow several dark butterflies through the maze. Haha, my first visit!

10 people participated in a hot, humid day looking for southern immigrants. Since 2007, we have found Sleepy Orange on eight of the 16 years of doing this field trip. Three Painted Ladies ties for the most reported this year in a submission. Painted Lady numbers are low for the second consecutive year. Only 11 were reported last year. Painted Lady photo by Donna Richter; other photos by Tim Fenske.

Impressive species. My first ever Sachem and CC Skipper in Ozaukee. And the other is a Goldenrod Crab Spider.

2:30 to 4 pm, cloudy, 84°

Went out looking for Clay Colored Sparrows, saw one, heard many, Nice number of butterflies

Red-spotted purple, sighted in my garden at 10:30 am visit a crab apple tree

7:40 - 8:20. Grass and vegetation was so wet with dew that I was surprised to see any butterflies. 0.74 miles

Very Windy, County Hwy A had been mowed.

Very windy, late morning.

Surveyed 3 grassland tracts and 3 miles of roadside frontage, mainly to check for Purplish Coppers. Two-thirds of the grassland transects and 2/3 of the roadside surveys were along Archer Road, where we found all 31 of the Purplish Coppers (12 in the grassland, 19 along the road and in all 4 quarter-mile sections of ROW).

Regal Fritillary geographical breath monitoring at 7 plots not surveyed yet in the 2022 flight. At four of these patches we have only surveyed 0-2 times for summer butterflies during 1997-2022. We found 0, 0, 0, 1, 2, 1, and 13 Regals on transects, plus one in a plot between the road and an off-road patch we walked to. With the addition of 2 females seen today, we’ve seen 2.0-2.1% females and 97.9-98.0% males out of more than 400 Regal Fritillaries in 2022, not including individuals where we didn’t ID the gender. This list includes 5 roadside Monarchs.

9 to 11 a.m., 83°, sunny.

On gravel parking area. O Ophus Road

Busy late afternoon for pollinators

Early afternoon, hot (about 90°) and blustery. All but the wood nymph sighted within ten minutes of arrival.

After I visited the library, I came home to yet more Monarchs and Fiery Skippers.

Spendt a few minutes in the afternoon here. The garden has expanded into the strip along the parking lot which has been made into a bioswale to hold rainwater. The many red swamp milkweed plants are really drawing in the Monarchs.

I only spendt a couple of hours this morning at SANC and most of it was pulling weeds in the woods, so only a few butterflies to report. I did find an interesting-looking moth in the woods called a Bent-Lined Carpet Moth, Costaconvexa centrostrigaria, which despite its name does not eat carpets. The caterpillars eat knotweed.

Hard to find the right place to park and then the tractor trail up the ridge to the top but it was worth it! Lots of butterflies there. Steep climb. Vertical slope coming back has one precarious spot but I made it!

clear skies, upper 70's, slight breeze

My first Zebra Swallowtail in Wisconsin. Finally saw two female Fiery Skippers.

Giant Swallowtails were in the woods. 9:37 - 11:57, 2.4 miles

Sunny mid-morning. walked trails around pond for about an hour. prairie plantings. Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was a black form.

Spotted in the grass at 6:40pm; hot, humid, and clear skies.

3 to 5p.m. 83°, mostly sunny.
The Harvester I saw was probably the same one I’ve been seeing here for the past two weeks. It is always in the same spot at the same time of day, and there is always only one.

patly cloudy, 80s, slight breeze

1:15 PM - 5:00 PM, mostly sunny, 85 Degrees.

I planted Joe Pye Weed 7 years ago. To my delight I started seeing Monarchs every year! They are blooming now, & this Monarch showed up yesterday.

Incidental while preparing deer stands. Quite a few Tiger Swallowtails as we got near the White River area

Deer flies were ridiculous.

This was only the second time I've seen a Giant Swallowtail on my property, the first was on 7 Sep 2009. The bee was so loaded with pollen that it could hardly fly. The robber fly was feeding on a Japanese Beetle, sure could use more robbers here to take care of all the beetles.

Beautiful day - I walked the east and west prairie trails. Not many Monarchs; not much milkweed compared to previous years.

Includes part of Wehr Nature Center and part of Boerner Botanical Gardens.

The favorite nectar plant today seemed to be rattlesnake master. Fifteen Viceroys is the most I have ever seen in one place.

I've been finding monarch eggs on my milkweed and I've seen a few females, but this was the first male I've seen in my garden this season. He was swooping around and nectaring on the Cosmos and the Swamp Milkweed in the late afternoon.

Seen while checking on the bluebird houses. One last batch of baby bluebirds in one of the houses. We have hatched out a record 25 this year. Interesting to see several Cabbage Whites puddling today.

Black Swallowtails were all very faded/tattered.

Lots of butterflies, hummingbird moths and bees were out today. Purple coneflower appear to be a favorite.

Mostly sunny, 70s and beautiful. Both of these dirt roads are a favorite spot to find butterflies. Though the puddles and potholes on Larrabee Road have been recently filled with gravel. (I've never been so disappointed with road repair.) It's great fun to find multiple Common Checkered-Skippers. I rarely see even one per year. Painted Lady is also FOY. Cardinal Flower is blooming.

Peck's skipper? On Echinacea in backyard. Thank you for checking.

Perfect weather and conditions for a butterfly survey: early afternoon; light wind; low 80s; plentiful native, blooming wildflowers. Once again, however, many fewer Monarchs (and butterflies, in general) than I would expect for this time of year and the conditions.

about an hour at mid-day on the trails around the water retention pond. planted with prairie flowers.

9:30-11:30, 1.5 miles. One of the Tiger Swallowtails was a black female. One of the Monarchs was laying eggs.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Tithonia.

2:30 to 4 p.m.. Sunny , 90°

About 90°, calm, sunny.
3rd and 4th GST's I've seen this year, significantly fewer than typical.
The first was early in June and the second last week. No larvae as yet, and none in 2021.

It was a very rainy day for our area. Shortly after the rain stopped I visited an alfalfa and clover strip that was busy with butterflies. I was pleased to photograph the White Form Orange Sulphur with wings open. Another rainstorm ended the Butterfly Fun for the day! 3:30-5:30 mostly sunny with some wind especially as the next storm moved in.

Spotted this butterfly enjoying our Oriole feeding station. We believe it’s a Question Mark butterfly.

Big and beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

We surveyed five 800 meter grassland transects and one 400 meter transect looking for wetland coppers and to add sites to the breadth of our 2022 Regal Fritillary monitoring. The four patches with a history of Regal Fritillaries in them had 4, 4, 2, and 7 male Regal Fritillaries on our surveys. The Purplish Coppers were in 3 different patches, but the Bronze Coppers were all within 10 meters of each other.

Surveyed 8 grassland tracts with a variety of recent management types using approximately 800 meter transects, mainly to check for Purplish Coppers. All of the Purplish Coppers were in three of the patches managed most recently with haying or extensive. Three sites were hayed or mostly hayed in late summer 1-2 years ago, one was extensively mowed a year ago, one was burned twice about 5 years ago, one was burned in 2022, one was grazed up until about 4 years ago, and one is being grazed now.

Incidental while collecting seeds for replanting into the SNA.

Sunny, upper 80s, humid, breezy. Lots of butterfly activity again in the garden. The Summer Spring Azure was a new visitor. Also spotted a funny bug making the rounds on the Black-eyed Susans.

80 degrees by noon. Windy and sunny.

Never been here before. Cabbage whites dominated most of the park. One woodland opening had the rest of the species. Also saw many Snowberry Clearwings and one Hummingbird Clearwings.

There has also been so many cool Odonates lately. The Giant Darners (Anax spp.) and Green Darners are fun to watch!

1 of ETS was Black form female.

Went to the Nature Trail behind Indian Hill School in River Hills because I have seen butterflies there in the past. I was disappointed on the trails today, but walked out to the roadside along W. Heather Lane and found another Marine Blue feeding on the Bird's Foot Trefoil Vetch. Also found the sharpest looking Spring Azure I have seen in a long time.

9:02 - 10:36, sunny, 1.5 miles. The area of the prairie along the path I walked was burned this year, increasing the variety of flowering plants. It seems to me that there are fewer butterflies here than before houses were built across County M.

70s. partly sunny, calm

70s, mostly cloudy, calm

Karner was along Stolte Road. There were also four other undetermined blues in flight. Sedge skippers--dun or broken dash--were on vervain or common milkweed along Co. Rd. O. Also here was an interesting bee fly, Poecilanthrax tegminipennis. With all the yellow setae on the underside of its abdomen, it seems to be a mimic of a leaf-cutter bee, Megachilidae

partly sunny, high 70's, by the waters edge

Went out looking for Rusty Patched Bumblebees. Very surprised to see them at all four locations in the state forest. In the end I saw nine Rusty Patched, four other species of bumblebees, and one Six Spotted Tiger Beetle

I walked the edge of the river between the boat launch and the east parking lot.
On the leaf, just to the left of the Fiery Skipper's feet, are the yellow, saddlebag-shaped pollenia of a milkweed. They stick to pollinators.

Painted lady!

RSPs were skittish. Possible Snout sighting.

1 Monarch caterpillar observed on butterfly milkweed along with at least 3 Monarchs that i didn't get pictures of. sorry for the poor quality of pics.

Question Mark at dusk

American Snout count of 27 is exact count, binocular ID as I slowly drove the length of the dirt road where they sipped moisture. Temp near 80, breezy.

First buckeye sighting

Sighted a orange and brown grass skipper, but it got away without being identified.

The Red Admiral butterfly landed on my Hydrangea plant.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was a black form female

So surprised to see Snouts by my house.

Windy, full sun. Mourning Cloak had seen better days.

Sunny, low 80s, breezy, early afternoon. Lots of butterfly activity again in the garden. Plenty of bird activity, too. The wren nestlings finally ran out of room and popped out one by one. The grand total was 7!

Warm and windy. A few Halloween Pennant dragonflies put on a good show.

Saw at least two Reakirt’s Blues and Variegated Fritillary that Jeremy found.

Couldn't go exploring today, so I just enjoyed my garden.

Incidental while gardening, short visit as a spider bite put an end to my day

With the help of grandson, Sam, we spotted these butterflies from 9:15-10:15 a.m. Very sunny, no wind, temp around 75. Another beautiful butterfly day! Sam spotted two other critters of interest - a damselfly and a spider.

First Gray Hairstreak in Wisconsin!

I went to try and find the Reakirt's Blue and ended up finding 3, 1 female and 2 male!!! I have photos of all 3. I was out from 930am-3pm, beautiful sunny day with tons of butterflies! I'll drop a pin for anyone interested in the Reakirt's. They were 30'-75' off the asphalt trail as the pin suggests. Good luck! Photos are all screen shots, sorry...

Reakirt's Blues
https://maps.app.goo.gl/CtzkfCuZGv24s6eZ6

Found some butterflies caught by predators.

Partly cloudy, around 85 degrees. Also very windy, made it difficult to get nice photos. Only surveyed about 0.3 miles along FR 2973.

Mostly sunny, breezy, 78 degree afternoon.

Likely many more Marine Blues, but only got photos of one.

About 2:45 pm, light breeze. A little flighty, but finally settled down so I could snap a few pictures. First one I have seen in my garden. (vegetables, flowers, native plants with an impressionist feel).

Backyard butterflies

Backyard butterflies

Low 80s and very windy. A five-minute stop to check the progress of the Smartweed bloom. Always a Bronze Copper spot. I found one clinging low to the wind-whipped vegetation.

Mostly restored prairie and old fields.

Observed this butterfly in one of our pollinator areas in our yard.

Was hoping to get some photos of regals but none of them were interested in sitting still.

One mile of roadside counting per person to check for Purplish Coppers. We saw 71 Purplish Coppers in the wide ROW south of Apache Avenue in the first 1/2 mile east of County Highway W. We also saw 5 of them in the ROWs along Archer Avenue in the first 1/2 mile west of County Highway W. Most Purplish Coppers were in good or excellent wing condition, so there may be plenty of time left in this brood.

One barrens, 3 grassland patches, and one roadside. Today's Karner Blue count (9 females, 23 males, and 3 of unknown gender) is our highest ever (previous high was 32) out of at least 43 broods that we've monitored at the site here; our Spring 2022 count here was our 6th highest out of those broods. All 17 Regal Fritillaries that we saw were males; more than 97% of our Regal sightings combining all areas this year have been of males. One of the 3 grassland patches today was a re-survey of one of our Regal Fritillary long-term monitoring sites; we found 4 Regal Fritillaries in this patch today vs. 6 on July 5.

Many butterflies flitting about similar to the Appalachian Browns. Moist/wet brushy/woody habitat.

Red Admiral, Monarch, Peck's Skipper - All seen in my backyard, just as I had been lamenting the lack of butterflies (poor timing on my part, most likely, as I have seven Monarch caterpillars and a Black Swallowtail caterpillar turned up on my dill, so they are around!

All before noon. Humidity and heat are ramping up.

10 to 11 a.m. sunny, 78 degrees.

Incidental while birding. Large fallow prairie fields.

Sunny, gentle breeze, low 80s, early afternoon. Many visitors to my garden today. Spotted 3 Giant Swallowtails hitting the zinnias at the same time. Finally a Monarch on the milkweed.

Nice species diversity! Also serval humming bird clearwings.

Marine Blues were seen on wood chip trail leading into Seminary Woods. Probably quite a few more than the two identified.

12:47 - 14:09, mostly in the woods.

I saw Prairie Violets being grown and they do form an understory in the prairie, which is usually shaded. The fritillaries must be depending on these violets in some areas for their larvae to eat. I was riding in a group trailer; so I am certain most butterflies were missed on the 2 hour excursion.

The Marine Blues were quite active and didn't stop often.

tons of butterflies out but couldn't identify most of them

The Cabbage Whites have layed eggs on the kale in my vegetable patch and there are many caterpillars.

Went here on this beautiful sunny day to look for the reported Marine Blues and wasn't disappointed. Also ran into several friends who were also out looking for butterflies. The prairies are in glorious flowering, but the Marine Blues favor the invasive Crown Vetch. A female Black Swallowtail was laying eggs.

The area south of the lagoon and north of the War Memorial building has been converted from grass lawn to native plantings. Looks great.

Mostly sunny 72 degree morning.

75 to 80 F, sunny, calm. Butterflies were observed throughout the conservation land in the morning. 2 Monarchs were observed in a courting dance.