Recent sightings

1:45-2:15 or thereabouts. Managed to hit a sunny stretch. The Monarchs and Silver-spotted Skippers were very active, going from zinnia to zinnia.

A late afternoon walk around the prairie loop north of the building at Forest Beach Migratory Preserve. I saw four pairs of monarchs in tandem.

Avoca First West was really hopping with Leps today. I found all these on just a quick drive through. A walk about would have had really big numbers.

I made a quick check for the Sleepy but had no luck.

I did a quick check at the Blazing stars for the Leonard's skipper and found one on a Blue Vervain.

This nearly deserted road was a wonderful surprise!

82 deg., cloudy, early afternoon. Not much in the way of nectar sources other than goldenrod just starting to bloom and Queen Anne's Lace.

male monarch

I just looked at the gardens along the trail today. Despite lots of nectar sources and sun there were few butterflies today. Of course, I was distracted by the clearwings and the White-lined Sphinx. The black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was completely missing one hindwing but was flying well.

The Giant Swallowtail is rare this far north in eastern Wisconsin. This is only the second Brown County record, both this year.

When I was photographing the woolly alder aphids in the spot where I found the Harvester (Harvester caterpillars eat the aphids), I photographed a caterpillar without seeing it, on the top, right part of the trunk.

Was not hard to miss, larger than other butterflies. Beautiful markings. I could walk right up to it

Butterfly garden at my home has become honeymoon destination for many Monarchs!

FOY Leonard's Skipper! (Just one.) I've been watching the blazing star for them.

Spent most of the time in the upper meadows near the building. One of the Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female. Carolina Grasshoppers are continuing to drive me crazy with their butterfly resemblance in flight.

There were two of these I've seen over the past few days but they were further into the woods and could not get close enough. Today they were on the trail and the one let me get close enough for a picture.

Still numerous Monarchs. Saw an Eastern Swallowtail mixed in - a pleasant surprise!

seen while looking for robber flies

This was the first time I've seen a red spotted purple admiral in this area & I am out quite a bit with my camera. It lingered for quite awhile & I used a long lens to not disturb it. It was alone on a thistle & appeared healthy & fairly unflappable despite nearby bees. What a treat.

Short visit around noon. More dragonflies than butterflies.

Was in flight... easily could have missed.

The horse fly was on my car when I returned. Surprising number of Appalachian Browns on this late date.

There were far fewer Giant Swallowtails than last year at this time.

Two tiny butterflies were enjoying my fountain and flowers. Even though I was watering plants, they hung around for 20 minutes or so.

Stopped by the Monarch Way Station and adjacent flower garden at McKee Park for awhile after lunch. Nice to see some skippers today. Also good to see Mexican sun flowers, a monarch magnet this time of year.

Working today removing invasive Burdock, I was amazed by the quantity of Silver-spotted Skippers feeding on the nearby Monarda.

Temps near 90. The blooming Joe-pye-weed is very popular!

The Question Mark was depositing eggs on stinging nettle. Found a chain of 3 eggs. A couple pairs of mating monarchs seen. Also saw a recently emerged Ruby Tiger moth and an American Dagger caterpillar

Up to 85 degrees and sunny. 16 species. The Eastern Tailed-Blues were puddling. We heard Bell's Vireo and two cicadas: Lyric Cicada and the Dusk-singing Cicada.

The photo of the spider with the bumble bee prey was taken 1 minute and 31 seconds before the other when it was all wrapped! The compilation of the Hummingbird Clearwing shows how it uses its proboscis to get to the nectar.

Black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Giant Swallowtails are both rare here.

I've been leading a "Butterflies and Dragonflies for Beginners" walk at the north end of the Cedarburg Bog for the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog for about 5 years. This was the best day for butterflies I've ever had for the event.

Hackberry trees and woodland present. Seen feeding on 'Pink Diamond' hydrangea. Six seen, nectaring w Monarchs and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails.

Sunny, warm, and humid.

We saw three species today along the East River.

87 degrees, sunny day.

Observed while removing Japanese beetles from raspberry patch.
This past week I enjoyed observing two White-lined Sphinx moths, which I hadn't seen in my garden for a few years.

Also saw a hummingbird moth feeding on butterfly bushes

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - in the community gardens on the east side of Madison flying around Zinias

Blazing Star and Bergamot in full bloom along Brinks (231) Rd. in Bayfield County.

The Red-Spotted Purple was somewhat faded and had a torn wing, but it was still flying well.

Five of our Monarchs eclosed and flew away today, including the one that emerged from the very small chrysalis I photographed on August 1. She was indeed a tiny butterfly (shown in the photo below a more conventional-sized female on the screen above her). Probably just normal species variability, because other than small size she appeared morphologically normal and looked healthy and flew vigorously. Interesting.

I found another nice butterfly garden in Whitefish Bay. It is at Cahill Square Park. There is a separate rain garden that is permanently wet enough for cattails to grow which was also attracting interesting insects. I watched a female Monarch lay an egg on Milkweed in the butterfly garden.

Near marshland. Sighted in morning.

3 monarchs were doing a happy dance together over and around the garden about 1:30pm. One was especially enjoying the liatris.

Up to 85 degrees and sunny. 21 species. Also heard 4 cicadas: Lyric, Floodplain, Linne's and Scissorsgrinder.

warm and sunny, rather hot day, clear skies

The Question Mark is tasting the moth bait.

E. Tailed Blues have emerged at this location, which made the ID's with the Karner's very difficult. But no Spring Azures.

The drier of the two parking areas, this area was suffering from lack of water on the north, prairie side

I had a pair of Giant Swallowtails in my meadow for the last 3 days.

Between 11:10am and 12:10pm I hiked the paved trail north of Priem Road. The Common Buckeye was extremely tattered, but still flying.

I had to run over to the temporary Village Hall for Whitefish Bay today and discovered a wonderful rain garden/butterfly garden there. Wow! We need more of these.

All seen in our yard and prairie

Black swallowtail caterpillar feeding on celery plant. In 2017, there were five caterpillars feeding on parsley plant. There have been a pair of monarchs visiting zinnias as well throughout the summer.

Flitting from low grassy edge to maple/birch/oak forest.

8:10 AM sunny, approx 72*F
1:10 and 1:20 PM, overcast approx 74*F

The guy with the big chopper on his tractor came to mow down the trees as I was surveying.

The pair of White-lined Sphinx moths were almost as big as the hummingbird nearby. The moths kept busy in the Bee Balm.

A late morning walk around Cherokee Marsh, beginning in drizzle and ending in steamy sunlight.

Still lots of nectar sources although the milkweed is gone. The Monarch count is down from the 175 that I had on July 24 when I had 14 mated pairs. Today we had only four mated pairs.

After yesterday's outing at Avoca where many Least Skippers seen, we expected more than 1 here. 4 alive Peck's Skippers and 2 "ambushed" by appropriately named ambush bugs (Phymata spp.) (mating pair of ambush bugs with female holding the skipper). All on blazing stars. Far more ambush bugs this year than I ever remember seeing!

Temps in the mid 80's by 1pm. That's quitting time, for me. Still, a Buckeye and an Am Snout in the same day, is a good day! Recent showers provided good puddling action.

80 degrees, hot, humid, sunny. One of the Tigers was a black female.

Giant Swallowtail.

Again on August 15. Hovered around some garden phlox for an extended period of time.

Mostly sunny. Up to 82 degrees. Fair number of individuals. 19 species. Nice to see some Orange Sulphurs. And nice to see Buckeye, Gray Hairstreak and Snout.

Went to Milwaukee to watch the
Brewers and checked out the Sculpture Gardens for a couple hours. The gardens had a high concentration of butterflies

Had other commitments in West Bend Area this past weekend but had been planning a trip here for Cardinal flowers and other wildflowers. Spent most of our time along gravel lane up to the overflow crossing (where we saw most of these butterflies) then did a short loop through the prairie area. Least skippers almost everywhere - stopped IDing and counting at 25 but we saw at the very least 50 small orange skippers.

In the field (north) across the road from the public parking.

Also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird nectaring on Salvia.

A sedge meadow on the Oak Leaf bike trail.

My last stop for the day. Hot, humid and breezy.

75 degrees and sunny. Concentrated on the west side which has been designated a butterfly sanctuary. One of the Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female. Also saw Snowberry Clearwing moth and a Ctenucha virginica.

The host plant, willow trees, are abundant in the park.

Just saw a black Swallowtail on my jelly oriole feeder! It's been around for about 1/2 hr now - keeps coming back. Breathtaking!

Two Monarch caterpillars on A. tuberosa

walked to walt lake, plenty of deer flies

Chambers Island Bio Blitz
Covered a large area of the island on bike. Main areas by the dock, air strip and dunes/beach, base line rd, sandy point.
70F, overcast still see shadow, light breeze

75 degrees, calm, muggy, densely overcast with light drizzle. There's a seasonal lull in native flowers until goldenrod comes in fully so knapweed is quite popular now. Also seen: several unidentified satyrs flying low and fast. One White-lined Sphinx. One large Monarch caterpillar and lots of evidence of others. Last photo - Prickly Ash with red berries.

The best "find" of the day was a sphinx moth. I thought it was a hummingbird but when it came around the monarda into view it was a sphinx with a large red area on the bottom of the thorax. I was so shocked, that I went on observing and forgot to take the picture

Second year that I've had this species in my yard.

Observation at 140th Ave & 200th St - 6:40pm

It was a good butterfly day. I saw others, but they didn't get close enough for me to ID them. Saw male and female Monarch adults. Many Monarch caterpillars and eggs on the milkweed, too.

In early afternoon I hiked the trail around the northern portion of the Lipinski Kitze Prairie at Madison Audubon's Goose Pond Sanctuary. I saw many Monarchs, especially where the Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistyis) is beginning to bloom.

Had landed on our gas plant in one of our flower gardens

Near 80 degrees, mostly cloudy and humid. All between 12 and 1pm.

My husband spotted it on a liatris in our garden

Came up to me sitting on my porch.

Several feeding on the underbrush along the woods trails

This was in my backyard, around 11:30 AM just as I finished watering my lawn. I have seen very few monarchs in the last two days, compared to the two previous days. Yesterday, there was an abundance of black wasps.

Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) nectaring at Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

Observation at home backyard birdfeeder - 3:20pm.

Incidental while in our backyard

very hot and sunny. Went out to test my new little point and shoot camera, a Panosonic Lumix. I was very happy with its performance.

In my garden

Got home from a butterfly walk and .... more butterflies.

Best unguided butterfly walk ever for us. Had never seen more than one Viceroy at a time. We needed to watch our step on certain parts of the trail so as to not walk on the numerous crescents.

I walked along the river between the boat launch on the west and the foot bridge on the east. Nice Osprey flyover.

Two hours (8 - 10 a.m.) on same day as the SWBA Lower Wisconsin Riverway field trip. Only we looked on north side of Wisconsin River. 13 species.

This is the 19th sighting of this species in Wisconsin where it was first found in 2002. (Mike Reese)

All photos by Lester Doyle except for Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed by Mike Reese

At least 30 large fritillaries but only saw 12 sitting and close enough for certain ID. Most monarchs on Showy Blazing-Star (Liatris ligulistylis). Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe) nectaring at a Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid (Platanthera psycodes).

There are acres of whorled milkweed in bloom. We only observed from the road since it is private property, but it seemed to be a butterfly heaven. These are conservative numbers.

A great butterfly day!

Spotted only the one in a prairie on the East end of Kinnickinnic State Park's Red Trail near a number (at least 4) of Monarchs following a rainstorm in mid to late afternoon.

Feeding from our Zinnias.

In our Cup plant

Very good species count. Combined bird watching and biking, but the butterflies turned out the most successful. Started the day with the Giant Swallowtail

I spent the morning in my own backyard reading. Every once in a while, I looked up as my eye was attracted to movement, and there was another great butterfly. The most amazing sighting: a new female Monarch whose wings were still wet and had just emerged from a chrysalis that I had not noticed although it was in a flower pot full of orange milkweed and zinnias. I have got to pay more attention. Also saw a Snowberry Clearwing and a Hummingbird moth.

Red Admiral feeding on grape jelly

Warm, humid 85 degree day with a breeze. Found resting under our garage gutter and then inside our garage.

On leaves of an apple tree

Observed several minutes around 9:00 a.m. feeding on bee balm. They then landed and sat still. I then realized these were butterflies, not large hummingbirds.

Black swallowtail drying her wings just after emerging from chrysalis.