Butterfly sightings for September 2010

Found in my yard on a butterfly bush

Red Admirals frequenting a neighbors pear tree and the over ripe fruit, about 2 weeks now.

Cool and windy today. Most of the Monarchs were seen along the south side of a woods. The Painted Lady is the first I've seen in 3 years. The Red Admirals and the Painted Lady looked very fresh.

The thistle was a very popular place today! A Monarch emerged from the chrysalis on the side of my garage yesterday (day 13).

Cool and windy. Most of the Monarchs were in areas with sun but protected from the wind.

Cool and very windy. Partially cloudy. Two Meadowhawks seen in woods and two Common Green Darners at the meadow before the nature center.

Lots of monarch caterpillars on butterflyweed.

There were plenty of monarchs around the flowers, but I spotted these eight clinging to a branch together. Resting up for the migration, I suppose!

There was lots of nectaring today and the butterflies were easily approached for photos. The spider photo is a composite of photos of the front and back of the same spider.

Lots of Monarchs! I also saw a Snowberry Clearwing.

Feeding on verbena bonariensis in my garden for quite some time.

Lots of people taking photos and smiling at the Monarchs. I made actual counts of the largest groups of Monarchs, most of which were feeding on goldenrod, so the total is probably very conservative. Can you find the Viceroy in the photo labeled Viceroy?

Partially cloudy and cool, light wind. (Bad for Mosquitoes, good for us!) Few butterflies, mostly monarchs in the meadows, too many to count.

Good Monarch day - many were seen feeding on goldenrod

The Library Garden does it again! I knew that this Hairstreak was a good sighting, but I didn't know how good until I got home and checked my photo against the field guide. Just goes to show that even on a casual walk to return your library books, you should always carry a camera.

My friend Tracy and I were having tea in my garden. As she was leaving we sighted a Giant Swallowtail at the top of our waterfall hovering over large red Sedum plant. What a beautiful sight for us to share. A perfect ending to a lovely visit!!

Monarchs everywhere! What a beautiful morning.

One very late, female Delaware Skipper.

The Buckeyes were aggressively chasing any other butterflies that got too close. The Coppers had the most hindwing blue scaling that I've ever seen. The blue scaling forms spots above the orange band.

The painted lady was seen in Black Earth, the rest at Pope Farm Park west of Madison.

Barely hit 70 degrees, and almost calm. Lots of butterfly activity.... just had to pay attention for anything besides monarchs, sulphurs, and whites. The female eastern-tailed blue (with no tails) was laying eggs on alfalfa flowers.

My first visit to this sprawling park that I was unaware of. Limited species, but loaded with them.

I keep a few herbs growing in a pot on my deck and I've noticed lately that the parsley has been dwindling. Today I found out why when I discovered the Black Swallowtail caterpillar.

Cool & breezy in the morning. I was surprised to see a Karner among the E.T. Blues.
Also saw 2 Celery Looper moths.

Saw this lovely guy in our front yard. We live in a highly wooded area, near Natural Bridge State Park.

When I first arrived at 8:30 am, most of the butterflies were still resting in the low grasses and purple clover. As I walked through the meadow the abundant butterflies raised up and flew a few feet before settling again.

My last Dainty Sulphur sighting was 3 years ago. This one was difficult to photograph because the wind kept disturbing it.

Very windy and cloudy most of the day. Distracted by moose sighting on the meadows. Found tracks.

These were casual observations while mowing and doing yard work.

I stopped for about an hour here after the sun came out to look for Fiery Skippers. They were all males and nectaring mainly clovers and dandelions.

Walked a trail from parking lot off Hwy. 49. Very windy.

There were a large number of Monarch's hanging from a White Pine on my property line, which is adjacent to a field.

I found a field with a lot of orange sulphurs.

Many migrating dragonflies: Hundreds of Common Green Darners and some Black Saddlebags and occasional Red Saddlebags.

Along the bike path there were hundreds of Monarchs (with a few other butterflies) on the masses of flowers on the Japanese Knotweed. I don't know how to reconcile my animosity to this invasive as a member of the land stewardship crew at the Schlitz Audubon Nature Center and the plant's obvious attractiveness to Lepidoptera.

Looking for Fiery Skippers.

Kind of beat up American Lady!

also a comma and a dark swallowtail I didn't get much of a look at. Lots of good flowers around.

The Gray Comma was on Tod's sock! The Black Swallowtail was unusual looking.

A much better day than I expected. My first-ever Little Yellow -- I almost expected one in July/Aug but had given up on seeing one up here this year. Also an extremely late but very fresh N. Pearly-Eye. And to cap off what has been a crazy year for Green Comma, this individual was in my backyard and at one point even on my deck!

Tons of butterflies!

Beautiful day. light breeze, sunny. Common Green Darner swarm over the zoo today. Couldn't get a good photo. Many Fiery Skippers.

Spotted on my sister-in-laws butterfly bush, Oneida Street, Green Bay.

Half of the Monarch sightings were late instar caterpillars.

Lots of Sulphurs on the yellow flowers made a lovely sight of many shades of yellow on yellow.

Pretty windy but it was a pleasant day. I just walked along the gravel and sand roads.

We have a nettle patch specifically for butterflies. It will be interesting to see if the Milberts will stay here over winter.

Clouded Sulphurs everywhere. The highlight was a bunch of skippers on a large aster bush. Also a great blue heron was just hanging around looking photogenic.

Also two Ladies, but I couldn't see their "eyes." And two Wooly Bears and a Yellow Bear caterpillar.

One painted lady sat calmly on the cement near my feet, allowing for some good viewing and photo opportunities.

Clouds and temps in the low to mid 50s don't make for great butterflying.

It was cool today, but the sun was out for awhile and so were the butterflies. This is a new late sighting date for me for Least Skippers. I've been waiting for days to get a photo of a recently emerged adult Milkweed Bug. The 2 Fiery Skippers today were only the 2nd and 3rd ones that I've ever seen. The 1st was 3 years ago before I had a camera. I didn't see the spider on the Aster with the Fiery Skipper until I was working with the photo. The spider did not get the skipper.

Haven't seen this species here before.

Only the third year I have seen Fiery Skippers here.

My first Checkered White in Bayfield County since ~2002! Nice fall colors have arrived...

The Monarchs were back after being absent yesterday.

Cool, cloudy, with some sprinkles. Not a lot of insects but I did see some very different ones, including a strange fly and moth, and a Spotted Lady Beetle eating a fly.

Warm day. In addition to the butterflies, I also spotted a white lined sphinx moth.

Two hours, temps in the 70's, quite a bit of sun, moderate breeze. Nothing unusual seen.

I looked outside and saw two sulphurs circling each other, nothing unusual about that except that one was a Clouded and one was a Dainty. It was rather funny to see.

A red admiral was at this location AT LEAST from10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m., sunning itself in today's warmer air, preferring the Sedum flowers.

2 female Canada Darners seen ovipositing at the edge of the pond

The first Common Checkered-Skipper I have been able to photograph. This one is a female.

Overcast. Sleepy Orange in the background.

Feeding on New England asters beside my house. Not easily disturbed.

Lower 80's but overcast and windy. I wasn't expecting many butterflies, but I did manage to see 7 monarchs leisurely nectaring on 3 different types of plants (butterfly bush, aster, and Verbena bonariensis), 5 cabbage whites flitting around like cabbage whites do, and 1 frantic painted lady who didn't stay in one place longer than a few seconds.

Sunny and 55 degrees. Pleased to see a common buckeye. Also a neat dragonfly, a red saddlebags, I believe.

Low 50s and cloudy with a few peeks at the sun.

Mostly cloudy and cool. The sun started coming out as I was leaving.

Mostly sunny with temperatures in the low 60s.

An Ambush Bug had the Clouded Sulphur by the legs and proboscis. I tried to get a video clip of the Checkered Skipper, but all I got was a very brief look. This is a new late sighting date for me for the Peck's Skipper, my previous late date was Sept 8.

Observed on an overgrown hiking trail.

60s and sunny. Most of the butterfly action was on two large clumps of asters.

A fresh Giant nectaring along the road as we drove around looking for fall colors.

Saw Eastern Tailed-Blue butterflies in the area but saw a few, like this one, that were worn without tails and look a little different.

Lifer!

There were many more whites/sulphurs in the distance in surrounding fields, but only those that were close and identifiable were included in this count.

The size difference between the male and female Eastern Tailed-Blues was the largest I have seen. I was distracted by the Phantom Crane Flies which looked marvelous seemingly floating along above the water.

Sunny, warm day. Very still, no wind. In and adjacent to long-abandoned field.

The fritillary was very tattered.

Mostly sunny becoming cloudy day, with light & variable winds, high in low 60s. Nearly all butterflies except the Comma were seen around the prairie area down by the parking lot at the start, when the sun was still out.

The best sighting was Bobwhite!

Also a couple of unidentified ladies (butterflies, that is).

Windy but warm enough. Burst of showers at noon. Gray hairstreak flew off before photo. I searched and searched for 2nd chance. Clouded Sulphurs most abundant.

Two of the Blues were in copulo.

This was my first encounter with an American Snout. It was feeding on Rigid Goldenrods and New England Asters in the midst of a large Prairie Garden.