Butterfly sightings for June 2010

It was next to goose scat by the river's edge. The mosquitoes were so bad I didn't stick around to get a better photo.

Some of the Karners were very fresh and others were quite worn.

Also several blues and skippers of the Neversitstill variety.

Not much happening here today...

Went here this morning looking for a rare bird that had been reported. After getting a good view of the beautiful male Lark Bunting, I took a brief look around for butterflies. I got a got photo of this skipper which I think is a Peck's.

Lots of coppers and ringlets. First White Admiral and Indian Skipper of year for me.

Just had time for a quick photo before it flew away with the wind.

Yesterday's rain made mud puddles on the dirt road... lots of butterflies this morning

Silver-spotted Skipper is a good find in the county.

A storm cut my hike short. I also saw a lovely Nessus sphinx.

Highlight of the day was Yellow-headed Blackbirds.

Some casual observations while dragonflying.

The Silver Spotted Skipper was nectaring on raspberry flowers.

Saw 10+ Holopogon here, by far the most I have ever seen.

Brief stops under mostly cloudy/windy conditions late in afternoon; very little butterfly activity (but moths doing well). Single bogs frits at all sites except 2 at Bear Creek. Hobomok working Labrador tea.

swallowtail and white admiral both on oranges set out for orioles

A flowering bush in my mom's garden was attracking the azures and a sphinx mouth.

Very windy out there!

Rough day on the Meadows. Windy, cloudy, cold, just past a lot of rain this past few days mad for pretty uncooperative butterflies. Saw 10+ yellow swallowtails, was only able to positive ID one. Several types of robberflys were on the prowl.

Saw a beautiful Northern Crescent as well as a Baltimore Checkerspot and Red Admiral.

Back in Wisconsin after a week in Virginia. Not quite so many butterflies here; there are advantages to awful heat and humidity. However I saw my first of the year Red-spotted Purple, although it did not alight long enough to get a photo.

Cloudy, with some sprinkles. This is only the third time I have seen a robber fly with a butterfly.

Windy Day - sighted on gravel road

Only 1 Bog Frit seen all day despite much effort across Sawyer, Ashland, and Iron counites. Overcast most of the day, but expected to see more. Flight is likely nearing the end over most of WI.

I thought I saw some sun at 2:40 so I decided to head out. I must have been imagining since it was definitely cloudy and started raining when I reached the back of the property.

Many sulphur eggs on clover, and two Cabbage White eggs on one cabbage leaf.

The sun was out for awhile in the early afternoon. The highlight of the day was when one of the red admirals decided to land on my arm and sun himself. Stayed there for quite awhile. Also saw a dragonfly and a damselfly to round out the day.

Windy day

Some nice butterflies despite the very cool, cloudy, and damp weather. Also saw my first Ctenucha Moths of the year.

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Cloudy. The Great Blue Heron was standing on top of the information kiosk on Hwy W.

We saw six Great Spangled Fritillaries feeding on purple clover right off the Red Cedar Bike trail.

Far more plants are flowering here since my last visit and with the sun out briefly, there were far more butterflies also. There were lots of Sulphurs but all that I could get a good look at were Orange Sulphurs except one. I rescued this unfortunate dragonfly which was caught in a spiderweb.

Cloudy all day today.

walked in brown's fen and the restored prairie

Weather didn't break until afternoon and that's when things began to move. A few yellow swallowtails seen but none would slow down for photos. Slender Clearwing - Hemaris gracilis laying eggs on blueberry.

Nice and sunny after yesterday's drenching rain. On a two and half mile walk about the property I saw great numbers of Azure's doing the butterfly meet and greet. My estimate here of numbers is probably low. Also had a couple of Ctenucha moths and this Eight-spotted Forester.

Mostly along Brockway, but also so other areas. I was complaining about the lack of sun, but obviously I saw a lot of stuff! Male Karner Blue was newly emerged (already the 2nd brood?).

I showed up early at Dike Road for a Horicon Marsh Bird Club Field Trip, and managed to get one good shot of this guy in the wind. Lots of butterflies on the over-abundant non-native Sweet Clover, but too frustrating to identify, or photograph, in the wind. I will be going back...

The Common Ringlet population seems to have noticeably increased over the past decade.

Red Admiral was easily the most common lep. Every so often in the vast swaths of nettles lining the bike path were patches of plants (a yard or two square) that were heavily denuded and crawling with Red Admiral caterpillars. Also saw several anglewings.

At one point I counted 22 White Admirals, 3 Canadian Tiger Swallowtails, and 1 Question Mark on this very fresh wolf scat. The Question Mark is actually the first I've ever photographed up here. This seems to be a good year for them and Black Swallowtails in the northwoods. A bog along this road that hosted many Bog Fritillaries around this time last year held none on this day.

Sunny and beautiful. There were dozens and dozens of beautiful Ebony Jewelwing damselflies dancing in the forest.

Saw a few Eight-Spotted Forester moths. Was too busy doing other things at Hartman Creek to search for butterflies, but there were lots there!

I spotted this butterfly resting on a fern.

I didn't start until after two and it was windy and cloudy.

Red-spotted purple

It was after 6:30pm and cloudy, so I didn't expect to see much. I certainly didn't expect to see a bear walking straight toward me. After I realized it was probably a yearling and not a cub or an adult, I decided to get some photos before it saw me and ran off. None of them were in focus because it was steadily walking. It got very close and never saw me, so I decided to let it know I was there and it took off. It was only 8 paces from me.

Saw this very pretty Fritillary this morning.

This was a joint field trip for the Marquette County Chapter of the IAT and the Prairie Sands Chapter of the Prairie Enthusiasts. The field trip was for dragonflies and damselflies but they did look at other things. A Mourning Cloak landed on a hat and everyone got good up close looks at the butterfly.

Windy. We also saw a dead mole, Black Saddlebags, Red Saddlebags, and Prince Baskettail dragonflies.

I included a photo of a water strider that was feeding on a caterpillar. I've never seen a strider do anything but "stride". The Elfin Skimmer is only the second one that I've ever seen.

Seen at home

Between the two dams on the lake.

Also searched the prairie restoration project by the library across the street from the arboretum.

I haven't identified the moth yet, but I don't think I have ever seen it and it is cool. Thanks, to Ron Arnold who recognized the genus. The moth is Autographa bimaculata (Two-spotted Looper).

The White Admirals just keep flying around and asking me to take their photo.

I wanted to look for Bog Coppers, so I set up my plank bridge across the ditch and slogged around in the floating part of the bog. A long search produced no Coppers, but I did see lots of Elfin Skimmers. I left the bog and walked the road, and just as I was about to leave, I found a Bog Copper on the road next to my truck. The Grass Pink photo includes a Crab Spider with a Long Dash.

No bears today, but I did see a set of adult tracks in the mud on my brother's property. I got pretty jumpy when I heard a loud crash in the woods behind me, but it was just a large branch that fell off of a dead tree. The Silver-bordered Frit looked like it had just emerged. It was very bright and appeared to be drying its wings.

Butterflies everywhere. One of the copppers was so intent on nectaring that he provided a perfect photo op for at least half an hour, just a few feet from the path. The mourning cloak was very worn. Also saw many Virginia ctenucha, the moth with the iridescent blue wings, and lots of dragonflies and damselflies.

Mostly sunny. Very little wind.

Mostly sunny. Very little wind.

Despite how beat up this particular butterfly looks, it was still surprisingly agile in flight and very clearly alert and aware of things around it.

Caught these on a recent stroll through my property.

We saw a Little Wood Satyr nectaring.

A nice variety on a visit terminated after an hour by mosquitoes; bodes well for the annual count in a couple weeks.

Nectaring on common milkweed along dike road with the Long Dash and Silvery Checkerspots the Two-spotted skipper kept returning to the same milkweed blossoms.

Cloudy with some sun but it had just rained.

Over 300 Red Admirals on our property. They're everywhere!

Cloudy

I got a late start today because of my unexpected visitors from the south. The snout was pretty beat up, but I would have been too had I been out in last night's storms.

Dozens and dozens of Sulphurs dancing above the fields full of many kinds of clover and vetch, but nearly everyone I could get a good look at was an Orange Sulphur. Also many European Skippers and try as I could, I couldn't find a single other kind of Skipper. Had my first Buckeyes of the year. Got an interesting picture of a Summer Azure feeding on a bird-dropping. And another picture of what I think is a very worn and faded E. Tailed-Blue.

Wow. Just wow...

Woods unpleasantly overrun with mosquitoes, but an abundance of butterflies, especially in the field near the parking area. My first GST sightings of the year. In addition to those listed there were a dozen Fritillaries, many Skippers, and I think some alba varieties of the Sulphurs. The Common Wood-Nymph was eager for salt from my trekking poles.

Spent an hour there. Other than the listed butterflies, I saw some small Fritillaries that I couldn't get close enough to identify, they just kept flying away.

The Cabbage Whites were all hanging around the community vegetable gardens. Saw my first Common Wood-Nymphs of the year.

One cabbage white flying along the ground -landed on dandelion briefly then flew on.

Mass quantities of these butterflies buzzing around my head in our yard. Three landed on my leg at once.

A little colony of the white Rose Pogonias.

Came around a corner to see a Sandhill Crane crossing the path.

Earliest I have seen a Regal or the Gray Copper here. The Viceroy was nectaring on Mullein, not a usual nectar source.

Lots of humidity and mosquitoes and only 3 butterflies.

This is the first of this species that I've photographed here in Bayfield County.

This was a robber fly field trip, but I got distracted by the Little Yellow. My first Tule Bluet of the year.

The first time we've ever seen an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. We have milkweed & we've seen many monarchs as well.

4 pm

rainy weather just before observations, 11 am - 2:30 pm

Red Admirals have great camo on trees, they were everywhere. The deer flies were hungry so I didn't stay out as long as I would have liked to.

Red Admirals everywhere! They are sunning themselves on the house and on the gravel along the roadsides.

Windy and cloudy, but the butterflies themselves were cooperating well for pictures.

The butterflies were lovely but the most excitement I had this morning was when I came across a hen Turkey with chicks. One of the chicks got separated from the group and I picked it up and got a brief cuddle before reuniting it with its family. I got a picture of a “punctuation” butterfly that was so worn I cannot tell whether it is a Question Mark or a Comma and, although they are poor quality, I got my first pictures of a Little Yellow. There were also many beautiful Ctenucha moths.

First we've ever seen!

Dozens of Common Wood-Nymphs, but few other species on a nice late afternoon.

Mostly drove through very slowly. Stopped and walked along the gravel road a few times. Deer Flies sent me back to the car! Was nice to see the few butterflies that I did see once out of the car.

Cool, windy, mostly cloudy, and more wood ticks than anything else.

All four Northern Blues were very fresh males.

I also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing, and observed a 12-spotted skimmer catch a sulfur (but he dropped it). I may have to relocate the dragonflies (just kidding!).

My first Atlantis Fritillary.

Uploading some photos for species with no county photo record.

He was here the other day but way too fast for me to catch him on my camera...I was taking flower pictures and he came and posed for me today...

I did more butterflying today than jogging!

The Red Admirals are starting their second brood. A nettle patch that yielded dozens of them several weeks ago was being visited today by ovipositing females. Sadly, one of their nemesis parasites - Musca domesticus - was perched on the same plant that held these eggs.

This was the 22nd year for the Mud Lake NABA butterfly count! We found 32 species. New to the count was Little Yellow. Mourning Cloak and Orange Sulphurs were at the highest level of the 22 years.

There were a lot of fritillaries that were too far away to identify.

Saw the Little Yellow again and this time got a better photo than on Monday. The Mourning Cloak looked fresh and the Am. Lady was very worn. Moths today included Ctenucha, 8-spotted Forester, and a pretty black and white moth that I can't find in my guide.

The last few days, I have driven to sites to look for butterflies. Today, I stayed home, to work outside and saw a few butterflies without even trying. The Tortoiseshell is my new favorite butterfly. I've never seen one before and they are so pretty, beautiful shaped wings. Saw 10+ Fritillaries, but only this one up close enough to ID it, the rest would not land.

Had to run the meadows solo today so I could not hit all the spots I wanted to. But a good day none the less. Explosion of Mourning Cloaks! First LBJ of the season.

Greenish Blues were all extremely worn females.