Recent sightings

7:30-12:15. Sunny but cool to start and no butterflies until 9:30. The trail before it heads into the woods going up to the bluff had more Hickory Hairstreaks than I have ever seen. One group of small oaks had ten perching on the leaves. There were many such groups! One Common Milkweed had 6 Hickory Hairstreak and 4 Silvery Checkerspots. Yeah for milkweed flowers!! On the was back to the car I was hoping to add an Eastern-tailed Blue but to my surprise it was a Marine Blue, much more beat up than the first I saw this year. Just a documentation cell phone photo. My first Common Wood-Nymph and Regal Fritillary of the year.

Numbers were quite low today. Still no swallowtails, frits, or Red Spotted Purples.

Morning, Cool, cloudy and very windy. A couple of quick stops on Stolte rd.

Morning, Cool, cloudy and very windy. A couple of quick stops on Stolte rd.

Windy, cool, partly cloudy, evening. The hairstreak had a deformed wing giving a good view of the top of the other wing.

Many more unidentified commas as well- very plentiful today

7:55-8:35 a.m.

Rain earlier, most of the commas were seen puddling in the parking lot.

Azure was feeding on Dianthus in my pollinator garden.

My first butterfly garden….. Skipper taking nectar.
I am filled with joy…… watching amazing delicate creature!

Looking for a robber fly, Ceraturgus cruciatus, that Muffy has now seen three different years. This was my second failed attempt.

While banding American Kestrels I observed 2 species near the parking lot. 2 large oaks border the lot.

Lower prairie parking lot trail to woods. Hwy F.

An extremely exciting place. We arrived in late afternoon but hopefully we can come back soon.

Sunny and 88. Milkweed is in full bloom which attracted many Frits.

First day that a butterfly seemed to always be around no matter what I was doing. Milkweed is starting to bloom. Beautiful sunny day!

I walked along the Milwaukee River between the boat launch and the east end of the park. I haven't seen a Copper for years, and never at Waubedonia.

Hot, windy, early afternoon. Hundreds of European skippers on birdsfoot trefoil

9:30 am - 11:30 am. Also saw a weasel. Great butterflying!

Pretty confudent on Appalachian and Dreamy but you should verify images.

7am - 8am.

I surveyed from 7am - 8am.

These butterflies were on my house and in the back yard, 90 degrees, moderate wind, sunny.

11:00 - 12:00, 1.4 miles in a woods with some sunny openings but few flowers

Late afternoon 4-7 pm

Incidental while removing sweet clover from SNA

Sunny, 85-89 degrees F. We walked about 1.3 miles in the grassland and we each walked a separate 0.5 mile of roadside.

Sunny, 69-82 degrees F. We walked about 2.5 miles of grassland/barrens transects and we each walked a separate mile of roadside. The Gray Copper flight is relatively faster than the Aphrodite Fritillary flight compared to average. Usually Aphrodite Fritillaries seem barely to precede (detection of...) Gray Coppers.

Biking though the park

1:00-4:00, sunny and high 80s. Also one large yellow swallowtail flying very fast.

My first Delaware Skippers of the year. Only tiger beetles that I saw were Bronzed TB on the beach and one Big Sand TB. This was my first Proctacanthus hinei at this location.

Sunny and 88.

Sunny and 87. White admirals were hard to approach.

It was sunny with little wind and there is quite a bit of water in the area. I was hoping for some skippers. 8:50- 10:50, 1.6 miles

After seeing a Banded Hairstreak yesterday, I looked for our local ones while eating breakfast and saw two doing battles in the sunlight at 7:40.

80s. mostly sunny, breezy

Sunny, 70s

70s, mostly sunny, slight breeze

No Greenish Blues seen. Lots of mosquitoes.

Greenish Blue was what I wanted to see, though I saw none at Scott Lake Road.

Walked in along the exit road near the wetland.

Swarms of European Skippers. I saw several hundred of them through the course of the day; there are nearly thirty visible in the one photograph of them that I've included.

Walked from the gate to the left, maybe half a mile, to the tree line.

Most amazing Painted lady I have seen. It was about a quarter larger and it was pinkish.

Warm and a little windy. Looked for Karners, walked around visitor center boardwalk and the Karner trail north of the flowage

Fiery skipper was a pleasant surprise. First female I have seen.

While out clipping reed canary grass flower heads along the road through a spectacular bog I saw this butterfly flitting about. I followed it a bit and got these photos with my iPhone.

Sadly, this is the most butterflies I've seen in my neighborhood so far this year. Breezy, sunny, 80 degree afternoon.

South side of Highway 70, 0.5 mile east of Forest Road 137 and 0.25 mile east of FR 148. All the butterflies were seen along the roadsides except for a Bog Fritillary on the bog.

Half sun, 90-95 degrees F. Three right-of-way sites parallel to Wood County X near or fronting Sandhill Wildlife Area. We wanted to compare Karner Blue counts today to what we found June 7. The June 7 counts at these 3 sites were 150 males, 30 females, 2 unknown, 182 total, of which 17% were females. Today we had 41% females out of 83 total: 44 males, 31 females, 8 unknown. It was so hot the Karners were often closed up when they perched, not showing the top side for easier gender ID as much as usual.

6 Am Snouts flying in low plants with many young Hackberry trees.

Emperors at my house primarily. One Emperor and one Red-Spotted Purple sighted in the preserve itself, the latter specimen being particularly worn, missing about 1/2 of its right hind wing.

This butterfly was in my pollinator garden feeding on scabiosa.

Sunny and 95. 2 bees stung me in the face.The wonders of nature.

Sunny and 85-93

9:04 - 11:51, 81 - 87 F, S wind 10 mph, 1.3 miles. The male Viceroys were defending their territories along the path.

The American Snout was in the herb garden. In general, there were very few butterflies or dragonflies evident.

A trip to Northern Wisconsin gave me a little time to find a few new species. A Red Admiral greeted us at the Park Entrance like an old friend so I took that as a good omen! The Swallowtail and Monarch were visiting the Bog Labrador Tea. I was very excited to snap photos down in the bog of the very small black and white flier until I realized it was 'just a moth.' Found the Ringlet near the hotel in Washburn. No wind, sunny with temps between 70-85 from 9-12.

Repeat of yesterday's survey but with much better weather. The Bog Fritillary count was the same on the 2 days.

Sunny, 74-77 degrees F. This is the slowest phenology bog we study. Even though we saw Bog Fritillaries on all the other 4 coastal bogs yesterday, it is possible that the Bog Fritillary flight has hardly started or hasn't started on this bog.

Saw one red-spotted purple by my house again, and one in the preserve.
The number of Emperors at my house increased.
Went on my walk late in the day and saw fewer butterflies total, but found the Fritillary feeding after 5pm.

Incidental while removing sweet clover from SNA

Sunny and 93. Also found one MC caterpillar.

Too hot to count today.

These butterflies were feeding on flowers in my pollinator garden.

90 and sunny at high noon.

7:00 - 8:30.

Half sun, 53-63 degrees F. The five sites were Port Wing Boreal Forest west, Port Wing Bibon Lake, Bark Bay Slough's north bog and south bog, and Lost Creek Slough's bog. It was cloudy, 53 degrees F, and with a strong wind on Bibon Lake and we saw no butterflies there. We found 1-7 Bog Fritillaries at each of the other 4 bogs.

Re-do 3 days after our previous survey to compare Bog Fritillary counts (we found fifteen here on June 16) and get an idea of where the species was in its flight curve. This compares to zero Bog Fritillaries on our counts here last year.
The Bayfield County inland kettlehole Bog Fritillary Counts are much higher than they were in 2021's very low year.

Seven of the Pink-edged Sulphurs and 1 of the Indian Skippers were on the bog.

Sunny, 75 degree day.

Mostly sunny and 83 degrees. 18 species. The Hackberry Emperors were great fun. We both had 4-6 Emperors sitting on us! (Photo shows some Emperors on scat.)

Two days does not make a trend, but seeing more Monarchs

Sunny and 82.

Beautiful day. Not much in bloom.

Sunny and 79.

14:00 - 16:00, 2 miles. There were not a large variety of abundance of flowers,

One Hobomok was Pocahontas form

9:36 - 11:43. 1.9 miles. The alfalfa field near the road was mowed recently.

The bumble bee mimic robber flies were interesting to see.

Mostly cloudy and with rain approaching at the end, 73-77 degrees F. Eight bogs. Same sites as May 27 and June 14 except that today we omitted the Frigga Fritillary specialty bog at Bear Creek SW. 19 of the Bog Fritillaries were found at the Chaffee-Foxboro Bog and the Milchesky Road 1.75 bog. The Bog Fritillary count is probably below the long-term average here, but today's count is 10-12 times as high as our combined 2020-2021 index at these bogs during the Bog Fritillary flight.

We also surveyed the roadsides, where we found everything except for the Bog Fritillaries.

Had fun seeing a doe on one of our trails. Lots of doe and fawn activity by our cabin this week. Mostly sunny, 75 degree afternoon.

Cool 55 degree, sunny morning.

Many brightly colored Hackberry Emperors - Emergence event. On/along gravel rd.
Midland Clubtail feasting on possibly Widow Skimmer.

More Hackberry Emperor were around at each location.

Beautiful butterfly weather with no wind, low 80's between 1-3:30.

Amazing sight and experience to see and interact with so many Hackberry Emperor's along the road. Always love to see the Harvester.

Sunny, not windy with temps from 75-80 during the late morning.

Another day with a Harris's Checkerspot, as well as lots of Crescents and what I believe is the so-called "Pocahontas" dark morph of a Hobomok Skipper. First Northern Pearly-Eye of the year at this location.

Incidental while gardening

Mild and sunny. I walked the trail past Bently Pond to the Ephemeral Pond and back via the Swamp Boardwalk. A number of Midland Clubtail dragonflies on the mowed trails. Pearl Crescent and Little Wood Satyr are probably under-counted.

Heading off to monitor dwarf milkweed I spotted this butterfly nectaring on inland New Jersey tea. Area is a jack pine forestry area that has barrens vegetation and burned in the Germaine Road Fire.

These butterflies were all in my pollinator garden feeding on salvia, scabiosa and dianthus.

This is now the southernmost location for this species in Wisconsin.

I was fishing the creek behind the wastewater plant and it landed on some weeds by me.

64 and sunny, slight wind. Lots of dragonflies.

Sunny

Sunny

Two separate floating bogs (17 and 2 Bog Fritillaries per bog) at Wishbone Lake in the Rainbow Lake Wilderness, and bogs at Crane Lake (1 Bog Fritillary) and East Roger Lake.

Includes two radically different bogs adjacent to each other on Forest Road 182 just east of Twin Lakes, with the western bog a typical Black Spruce-Tamarack muskeg suction bog savannah, and an immediate transition eastward to a swampy Dwarf Birch bog where Frigga Fritillaries and Dorcas Coppers live. One bog on Wilderness Road (FR 195). The 4th bog is where we saw most of the Bog Fritillaries--the westernmost part of the County Highway M/County GG junction bog.

Also had fun watching a Hummingbird Moth. Mostly sunny, 65 degree morning.

Sunny, 83 degrees. I inadvertently bumped some camera button and it wouldn't take pictures today.

Incidental during a day of invasives removal. The Harris's Checkerspot was the highlight.

Warm, sunny, light wind, afternoon

Morning, Light wind, sunny and warm.

Sunny, breezy, mid-70s. Hiked a 2.25 section of the Ice Age trail from Hartman Creek State Park to Emmons Creek. Lupines were in full bloom throughout the meadow along with many other wild flowers.

Thanks to Tom Hunt for showing me around the property.

Somewhat handicapped by my camera being in the shop, but got a few photos with a cell phone.

Warm and windy.

This butterfly was feeding on Scabiosa and Dianthus in my pollinator garden.

1 Clouded Sulphur was a white form

Sunny and windy, temp around 85 between 3:30-4:00. Saw a lovely strip with blooming clover and alfalfa along the road with butterflies finding nectar before noon. By the time I got out there to identify and photograph butterflies most of the strip had been mowed. Darn it!!

my backyard; earlier this morning,

12:10 - 13:55, 1.2 miles. It didn't seem as windy here as listed for the area on Wunderground. Sunny. The Crescents had thick, black edging on their wings, but the white "pearl" was obvious on the underside. This seems to be a good place to see butterflies. I was surprised how well the underside of the Hackberry Emperors blended in with the gravel road.

80 deg., sunny. Looks like a bumper & early year for snouts.

While birding. All before noon. Sunny and breezy.

Good number of species. Many woodland species were in the prairie for some reason, maybe the wind

Born and raised in the rue patch by our mailbox. Eclosed today from a chrysalis that overwintered on our screen porch.

Bog in NW part of slough and the road parallel to it. Black Swallowtails well out on this deep water bog are unusual to see, but we also saw 3 on this bog the next time we surveyed it.

All of the Pink-edged Sulphurs and one of the Indian Skippers were on the bog.

Bog near Forest Road 236. 15 minutes.