Butterfly sightings for August 2010

3:00-5:00 pm. Awesome number of C. Branded Skippers -- at one point I saw a group of ten chasing each other. Secondary highlight was a Dainty Sulphur, my first of the year. I've amassed a lifetime of Green Comma photos this year alone but this one is by far my favorite! No Satyr Commas but also had a nice male Forcipate Emerald.

A conservative estimate! I've never seen so many in one place. I have a poor photo showing 90+ in flight in just one corner of the field.

We were so excited to see it drying its wings! We have never seen one here before, so we had to look it up here on this website. Thanks!

Casual observations during morning while traversing wetlands for loosestrife.

It spent about 20 minutes, moving from flower to flower at a hanging plant on my deck. It was the largest butterfly I have ever seen, with very distinctive markings.

Fluttering about my garden.

I am familiar with duskywings which I've seen in the past in Wisconsin, but this duskywing immediately stood out with its bright white conspicuous trailing edge to the hindwing. This butterfly was very dark overall with only a mildly contrasting creamy brown median mark on the upper wings and smaller markings that make up the submarginal and post median bands. These markings were very faint and the butterfly was very dark black overall including the thorax with the exception of a clean bright white outer margin -trailing edge to the lower wings. The size of the butterfly is hard to determine as I had no immediate comparison but was the size of Duskywings I've seen in the past, give or take. It's size was closer to a crescent but probably larger. I wish I had a camera with me.

along Knight Lane

A pair of swallowtails in the gardens today, this one is missing a piece of the wing.

My first Common Branded Skippers and Satyr Comma. Common Branded Skippers were everywhere.

Clouded sulphurs and monarchs everywhere -- above, in front, sideways, behind. Very cool. Liatris was the nectar source of choice.

I saw 10+ Proctacanthus milbertii at Greenwood Refuge; all males. 5:00-7:00 pm

We just noticed this Monarch chrysalis yesterday, attached to the mortar between the bricks of our front porch. The caterpillar was probably nourished by the stand of swamp milkweed right below the porch.

3:30-5:30. Not really a lot of butterflies here and so as you can see from the photos I did get distracted by the odes. First Great Spreadwings of the year.

While doing my evening run/butterflying, I also had a vole cross my path and I slowly walked by a deer. We were within five feet of each other. We took careful looks at one another then I ran on.

Windy day, then clouds moved in. For the 30 minutes the winds let up while the sun was out, the movement of butterflies was grand.

photo by Dorothy. Also heard 5 species of cicada, including Tibicen pruinosa (Scissorsgrinder).

My neighbor showed me the Black Swallowtail caterpillar he found on a parsley plant while at day camp this week.

3:00-5:00 Lots of nectar but few butterflies. Saw lots of Promachus vertebratus including the female laying eggs in the thistle flower, but only a single P. fitchii.

We first noticed this chrysalis a few days ago, hanging from our porch. Yesterday it was still green, but wings could be seen through it. When we checked this morning at 9:30, the chrysalis had turned completely black. A little more than an hour later, the world had a new butterfly.

Some really worn looking individuals. Common Brandeds were the only skippers I saw.

Tons of nectar sources, with blazing star, asters, and goldenrods in all their glory, but relatively few butterflies. A beautiful day to be out though.

This fritillary was quite faded. It was feeding on Joe-Pye Weed.

Must have just emerged. Have been watching for them and then saw a couple today.

Scouting trip for next Saturday's field trip. Mostly cloudy and windy 3:00. Lots of Little Yellows!

The Bender Park Prairie was nice today. I found an American Snout and Silver-spotted Skipper on the beach at Warnimont Park.

Red-spotted Purples and White Admirals were all over on the road - hard to avoid running over them. Lots of Clouded and Orange Sulphurs, too. The Common Buckeye was a nice surprise that far north.

This giant swallowtail is perching on my milkweed in the backyard. It was pretty beat up but didn't mind me in the area.

My yard: Just a quick watering this am. Saw my first Buckeye... looked a little tattered... must have had a long journey. Hung around in the lawn while I watered. Hope to see more! I planted the snap dragons just for them. :)

There was a lot of egg-laying activity by the Clouded Sulphurs today. I've been finding American Lady caterpillars on the Pussy-toes in my yard. They pull the leaves together with silk, which makes them quite noticeable.

Red Admiral on sunny late afternoon, very warm, on walkway that leads down to Lake Michigan.

Lots of Common Green Darners and Black Saddlebags. It is always nice to see a Variegated Meadowhawk.

Flitting around the house

Couldn't get a white admiral to pose so no picture. Not a great butterfly day with overcast conditions.

Rain in the morning and the clouds didn't clear out until noon. I was really distracted more by the odes, plants, and robber flies than the butterflies. One black-form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

Found on yellow mums

At Home

parking lot at County Rd D and County Rd DD

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail spotted out my front window flying around the beebalm in my front garden.

Spotted in my yard. Very friendly, landed on my foot. Wish I would have had my camera. I live in town, it was flying amongst my pink coneflowers below my front porch.

Taylor County finally gets some Lepidopterans!

It landed on my zinnia patch

A new species for me to see - a threesome of fiery skippers feeding! I was glad the heat didn't deter me from a midday "butterflying" four mile run.

Casual observations from wetlands (with upland edges) while treating purple loosestrife: 0800-1800

cloudy conditions kept butterfly activity low. Purplish Fritillaries were on the worn side...failed to find these in a grueling 3 mile+ hike through Belden Swamp earlier in the day...at least it was a wet heat!

Monarda still in blossom and lots of Lineria vulgaris--more than I've ever seen!

Mostly sunny windless day

The last image shows one and then two of the dangers of northern Wisconsin. I scared these fellows while visiting Shallow Lake in Oneida Co.

One fresh Karner Blue and one worn. A lot of Red Admirals, I stopped counting at 50.

Dry, hot day, with many stretches of open sand rich with tiger beetles.

Much nicer this week. No winds, few clouds, warm temps and more than a day since it rained last. Chasing whites the last few trips finally paid off.

I was walking across our creek bed when I noticed a little dark spreadwing fluttering around my feet. I stopped to watch it and it landed within 1 foot of my feet. The hindwings were a solid chocolate brown with a solid white fringe on the entire lower edge. The forewing was patterned and had a group of 4-5 tiny white spots about 1/4 inch in from the tip and just in from the front edge of each wing. Unfortunately, I didn't have my camera with me.....

During the half hour or so between the gentle morning rains and the heavy afternoon downpours, the sun came out, I happened to be outside, and I saw some butterflies. Didn't expect that on a rainy day.

Sightings from three locations, Hemlock Curve Trail, then Peshtigo Harbor Wildlife Area, then Lake Michigan shoreline where Peshtigo River flows in. And I saw more tiger beetles at Hemlock Curve but don't have time to send pics.

Surrounded by monarchs. Many painted ladies. Also saw quite a few of one of my favorite moths, the Virginia ctenucha.

Was watching for butterfly's as I usually do and noticed the beautiful fellow fluttering along and then landed on my cone flowers.

Only a few butterflies seen, mostly in a gravel area.

I had just taken some photos of the Crescents and hit the power button on the camera as I turned around, and an otter was crossing the road behind me. By the time I got the camera turned back on, the otter had slipped into the water and went under. This was only the 3rd time I've seen an otter in the wild.

Many, many Little Yellows and Eastern Tailed-Blues on the road at westernmost section. One Gray Hairstreak liked Karl Legler's shirt (photo by Tod Highsmith).

Warm, sunny day - just biking along and stopped by a bridge that goes over part of Pigeon Creek. There it was - dazzling me. I had to go on long zoom because I couldn't get down to where it was.

Mid-August not a very good time for bog butterflies and this trip proved it. Highlight was several Subarctic Darners, a new county record.

A Common Buckeye butterfly was very lethargic in the hot humid weather. My 2 1/2 year old granddaughter had a 5 minute opportunity to look at it very closely. A wonderful thing to watch!

Resting on grass in the prairie.

I also saw several large Fritillaries. The Skimming Bluet has an unusual exclamation mark pattern on the thorax.

Windy today. I spent 45 minutes chasing the skippers around my oregano patch. I would see them briefly and then they disappeared. They were uncooperative for photos and difficult to see with binoculars.

A beautiful day, finally nice enough to spend some time outside without getting eaten by mosquitoes! I've wanted to see a Buckeye ever since I first became interested in butterflies and saw my first today. Have seen an enormous number of monarch caterpillars but only spotted one chrysalis so far. Saw this green caterpillar today, I think it's a Clouded Sulfur.

Interesting weekend in my backyard in that Northern Crescents have been in abundance. Spotted some Eastern Tigers, well-worn at this point in the season. Stepped out to my patio Friday to see a dragonfly grounded because of a piece of leaf detritus stuck to one wingtip by what looked to be spider web material. Freed the wing and let it go on its 'skeeter eatin' way.

Red Admiral butterfly flying low and slow and bouncing off the wet sand near the shore.

Feeding on chocolate mint in my back yard.

Black-form female

Mostly cloudy and windy.

Also spotted a White-lined Sphinx Moth. I had a few at my house near Chaseburg yesterday.

Hiked several trails, but despite plenty of nectar sources, there were few butterflies.

35 monarch caterpillars were collected to raise at home. Only adults are counted in the sighting list.

We also have all stages of Monarchs in our garden - I watched the adult female lay eggs, found 4 caterpillars of very different sizes and we have 5 chrysalids attached to our porch.

My first day back to work and it is good to be back in Wisconsin. I saw more Fiery Skippers today than in my 2 week vacation in Florida. Butterflying in Florida wasn't as good this summer as last. I heard that the very cold weather in January and February caused the low numbers this year.

Cloudy and cool.

This tiger swallowtail landed on a zinnia.

In a small prairie by the parking lot.

Resting on a cultivated pitcher plant (Sarracenia).

I stopped at Wingra Creek in between errands and was pleasantly surprised to see so many butterflies and a chickweed geometer moth in a very short span of time.

Sunny! Surprised to still see a Pink-edged Sulphur. Five species of tiger beetles in 100 yard section of trail including the Cow Path which I haven't seen outside of central Wisconsin.

The pearl crescent, orange sulpher, and red admiral were only seen at Lake Marion. The checkered skipper and was only seen in Black Earth.

I last visited here on July 26th and the numbers were very different today. Many fewer Whites and Sulphurs. The female Black Swallowtails were laying eggs on Queen Anne's Lace. I was congratulating myself on sneaking up on a Pearl Crescent and getting a great close-up, when I discovered that it had been a victim of an Ambush Bug.

I was out looking for dragonflies and noticed a few species of butterflies and other goodies.

Feeding on chocolate mint in my back yard.

Lots of butterflies in 20 minutes. Very cool.

Seen in flower garden, it poor wings looked as if they have seen better days. Especially the right wing.

The tiger swallowtails adore my Zinnias, and monarchs like to land on the Red Milkweed. The red admiral landed on the phlox.

A very harrowing 6.5 hour trip through the prairie that was more a swamp. Much of Avoca is underwater and travel there should remain on OBVIOUS trails.

We also saw several Great Spreadwing damselflies.

There are swarms of a small yellow butterfly on what appears to be a field of clover. They are just west of town on Rt 33 by some fields of sunflowers. It is truly an amazing sight! They are everywhere!

Clouds early and then mostly sunny. I mainly walked the roads and when the sun came out it was spectacular again this week.

Area recently cut. Few butterflies today.

A birding trip which produced my first Least Skippers of the year feeding on yellow mustard.

Beautiful day with little wind, temps in the low 80s, no clouds, but really few butterflies. I was surprised to see two Wild Indigo Duskywings.

Beautiful day but windy. A Bumble bee and an active flock of 5-8 American Goldfinches playing in the prairie.

Casual obs while lounging on the shores of L. Superior. Neither of these species are all that common here, though this year they have been present in above average numbers.

Also had 5 species of tiger beetles -- Boreal Long-lipped, N. Barrens, Big Sand, Oblique-lined, and Cow Path.

These sightings during a 2-hr walk at the "far side" (SW corner) of the park. In ten years of walking this park, I have never before seen so many butterflies - esp BSTs, which were numerous and active.

[There were 30+ Crescents, but I wasn't able to enumerate Pearls vs Northerns; got pix of each.]

Amazing butterflying!

The tiger swallowtail was a dark form female.

At least 3 individuals, in open sandy area.

Not bad for a 25 min. walk along Yahara Place Park!

Windy day made it difficult. Temps were hot, mostly sunny. Found pockets of butterflies where wind sheltered.

Went out too early (7:30 am) for many butterflies, but found several Monarch caterpillars and one woolly caterpillar eating invasive burdock.

Dozens of clouded sulphurs were out, many on thistle at the edge of a soybean field along Highway 67. This white female was quite distinct from the yellow males.

This fritillary was in a construction area where a new trail is being built to link Eagle Elementary School and the village library. Heavy construction equipment was operating nearby.

9:00 am observations. Cool and windy.

Observations made while removing Burdock this morning. The Giant Hyssop flowers were very popular among the Monarchs. One thistle which had both flowers and seeds was shared by a G.S. Fritillary, a S-S Skipper and a Goldfinch.

The Eastern Tailed Blue I spotted was really beat up and had lost its "tails".

In my garden, feeding primarily on verbena bonariensis and butterfly bush.

If anyone wants eggs of clouded sulphurs for children to raise, they are available in abundance on clover leaves this week.

It was such a beautiful day I had to go out on my lunch hour. Very few butterflies. I walked the edge of the grounds by uncut prairie vegetation and cattails.

Feeding on chocolate mint in my back yard.

Cool morning caused slow warm up of butterflies. More wind than I like, but less than monday. All monarchs were moving south. New hatch of Eastern Commas

My 3 yr. old son and I raised 12 out of 13 Monarch this year! I even got to see the transformation from caterpillar to chrysalis! I also have a video of it on my phone. In addition, the milkweed we picked had larva on it that is why we had 13 caterpillars! I was amazed at the stages and so happy to share it with my son.

We have several of these every year that hang out with the sulphurs

Although quite breezy, butterfly activity was very productive once I got behind the main building. I also easily found three Monarch Caterpillars in the two minute time frame that I looked for them. I was restricted to the trails because of NUMOROUS black and yellow spiders in their large orb webs (not the common Garden Spiders that I'm used to).

Same location as yesterday, but a different time of day (noon today vs late afternoon yesterday). Clouded Sulphurs still rule, but I saw a few different butterflies and two moths. I'd never seen the white-striped black moth before. Very small, less than an inch long.

The Funereal Duskywing was very cooperative. It stayed nectaring on the same plant for about 45 minutes.