Butterfly sightings for May 2013

63 degrees, sunny, breezy. First butterfly of the season.

I also saw an Eastern Hognose Snake and caught glimpses of a couple of orange butterflies. Rock cress, puccoon, buttercup and pasque flower in bloom!

My first sighting of the year, about 6 weeks later than my first sighting of 2012.

Finally, my first butterflies this year! Mourning cloak at Tiedemann's, 1 cabbage white at Stricker's, 2 cabbage whites at Pheasant Branch.

1110-1135 and 1200-1222 hrs 66-73 degrees F, mostly sunny. The Spring Azure was of the marginata form.

The North Brockway site is described in Ann Swengel's butterfly watching guide on the SWBA website. 1140-1155 hrs, 69-72 degreres, mostly sunny. Brown Elfins is all we saw here: we saw 2 other Brown Elfins in 8 other miles of barrens walking today, but no Hoary Elfins.

First sighting of the season for me!

I tried very hard to get photos, but today these butterflies just wouldn't sit still within camera range. The attached photo is the best that I could do.

Two hours at the UW Arboretum today in 70 degree sunny weather yielded nothing. Nada. Fortunately a little Pieris rapae greeted me when I got home, bless his little invertebrate heart.

Trailing Arbutus is just starting to flower. This species was in flower last year on March 25. No elfins yet!

Day started off sunny but still cool, but by 11 it was warm enough for me to remove my coat and a butterfly to show up in a sunny meadow.

FINALLY...Foy butterflies. 51 degrees when I spotted the 1st Mourning Cloak.

76° Sunny. Mating pair of Azures followed 10 or so yards by each of the remaining Azures. Lady played on the dandelions by our house. Mourning Cloak was feeding at a bait station. Rock Cress is ready whenever the Marbles wish to dine.

Pearl Island is kind of a new area being set up in Brodhead. What used to be a service road for the Sugar River "Race" in Brodhead is being converted in to a more pedestrian friendly area with more trails being added. A lot of brush and some trees have been removed for easier access to the water.

They do exist! It's been a long dry spell. And not for lack of trying.

At last-a butterfly in my yard! The last of the snow melted in my yard on Sunday, May 5.

80° Sunny. Azures and one little brown butterfly along the marsh at 9:30 AM. Olympia Marble by my house while I was watering plants at 3 PM. An unid.ed white along the marsh at 4 PM.

A lot were flying around an open area along a section of the trail.

Flying over the potato fields

And once again a 2-hr walk on a warm windless day at the Grady Tract of the Arboretum was fruitless (#butterflies = #pterodactyls).

Drove to High Cliff to see my first butterflies of the year then came home to plant a school tree in the back yard and saw a butterfly.

10:50 am to Noon, 76-82 degrees F, mostly sunny. This list is everything I saw. The elfin was west of Hastings Road.

One encouraging sight was the appearance this week of the first couple dozen spikes of milkweed in the garden - the same week as 2011 (2012 was way earlier).

Not nearly as many anglewings as I expected, despite perfect weather, perfect time of day, perfect habitat, etc. The snow only recently melted though. Cool to see three Comma species on one scat, from left to right, Gray, Eastern, and Green Commas.

Perfect day, but far from perfect for butterfly sightings.
Paultry numbers and species.

Along the bike path between campus and Glenway Ave.

1:10-1:32 PM and 5:17-5:30 PM, 61-67 degrees F, mostly sunny. We're averaging less than 1 butterfly per mile in the central barrens this year, with two people looking.

2:50-4:30 PM, 57-67 degrees F, mostly sunny, light wind. This is our complete list.

1:45-2:30 PM and 4:50-5:05 PM, 58-67 degrees F, mostly sunny, light wind. This is our complete list.

Also saw my first Ringed Boghaunters of the year.

Cool and windy, but better than yesterday!

Sunny, 60F, lunchtime stroll.

76° Sunny. Whites were along road near farm house. The rest were in the marsh and along the pines. Photos are of the 2 Elfins.

Very warm and breezy today. Finally saw my first butterflies of the year! I also saw a Lady sp.

Such a cute little guy. The first one of these I've ever seen was last year in mid April.

68F, mostly cloudy, lunchtime stroll.

Third try to see these this year. I never saw one land in 15 minutes of watching.

1230-1250 PM, 69 degrees F, 0% sunshine, wind NW 6-10 mph. This is a complete list of what I saw at this site.

8:31-8:42 AM, 66 degrees F, 100% sunshine, wind NW 3-8 mph. This is a complete list of what I saw at this site.

1:05-4:35 PM, 69-83 degrees F, 40% sunshine, wind 0-10 mph. This is a complete list of what I saw at this site. The Spring Azure was the marginata form.

1st trip to the meadows this year. Crex needs rain. Green pussywillows at peak, white and yellows past peak. Pasque flowers out, a few cherry are flowering, no violets, no bear berry flowers. Not many bees yet. Big foliage difference between north of St Croix falls and the meadows.

Sunny for the first 30 minutes then clouds took over. Had one of the elfin sisters land near me long enough for a quick look, but she didn't carry an ID. Saw 11 trumpeter swans also. My trip thru was a short 1 1/2 hours.

8:24-8:51 AM, 64-69 degrees F, 100% sunshine, wind east 3-8 mph. This is a complete list of what we saw at this site.

2:30-5:15 PM, 76-77 degrees F, 99% sunshine, wind 0-12 mph. This is a complete list of what we saw at these sites. All 5 Freijas were about 0.8 miles N. of FR 2182 on Wolf Lake bog where a snowmobile trail crosses bog; both Milbert's Tortoisehells were on the same bog, one of them nectaring on Leatherleaf.

I seldom get two days in a row on the meadows. Returned to same locations as previous day for most part. Hoary elfins definitely not there day before. One pine elfin was not in area day before. Many more cherry blooms. Found some violets blooming (not birdsfoot). One bush attracted 3 species (see pine elfin pic). Still no skippers.

Profound extent of burning from last year on. Burning has destroyed the bulk of the easily accessible columbine. No Columbine Duskywings were seen.

North and south from Medina Jct. Rd. less than a 2 1/2 mile hike. Four CWs playing follow the leader all over the place. Saw a bittern that thought he was invisable.

Only there for a short visit.

Saw zero butterflies on Crex on May 7; nice to see these early guys again.

Checked several stands of bearberry at NE corner of Namekagon Barrens, but saw no Hoary Elfins. Juneberry shrubs are a few days behind those on Crex.

Barring Cabbage Whites, 2 hours of searching yielded singletons of Juvenal's, Silvery Blue and Spring Azure. Appaling scarcity of butterflies. No Sulfurs seen, rather surprising also.

12:00-12:35 PM, 76-77 degrees F, 100% sunshine, wind 0-8 mph. This is a complete list of what we saw at this site, but we had 11 unidentified elfins.

Also saw a blue, likely a spring azure, but couldn't positively ID as it was too fast for me. Nothing seen earlier in the day at Spring Green Reserve and Avoca.

80-84 degrees F, 75% sunshine, wind 0-10 mph. We think Wood County remains a little ahead of Jackson Co. in phenology.

Lots of ticks today.

Annual SWBA Field Trip. Lowest species numbers of the 7 years this field trip has been conducted. Nevertheless, we found all 5 Elfins! If we ignore the highly anomolous hot spring of 2012, we have previously averaged 21 species and 232 individuals, but this year we found only 13 species and 85 individuals. The exceptionally cold spring continues to depress butterfly populations.

Also saw a dark swallowtail with blue on the hindwings, but wasn't able to identify it.

Deer ticks must be celebrating some kind of holiday today--they were all out!

Saw another bumble flower beetle and Bombus bimaculatus on Missouri gooseberry. Also found a cool white and pink crab spider eating a pollinator.

Should be a great day for butterflies but I'm working my tails off to find anything.

4.5 mile train ride through the area and back, with several stops for short hikes along the way. Heavy rainstorm at the beginning (~7am), but skies cleared and it warmed into the 80's. Amazingly, just saw one cabbage white.

First black swallowtail of the season. It was a male.
Also saw 3 cabbage whites.

88° Mostly. 1:30-2 PM. Only the 2

1:08-4:48 PM. 77-89 degrees F, mostly sunny to totally cloudy, 45% sunshine, wind 0-20 mph. We had at least 11 unidentified duskywings.

82 degrees F and really high humidity.

80s, sunny, 1:30.

@ sighted while basking.

Of the black swallowtails, one was male and the other was female

78° Sunny. Not long in either place. Still no juniper hairstreaks.

72F, mostly cloudy, lunchtime stroll.

80 degrees, sunny, windy. 3 painted ladies and 1 male black swallowtail flying around

Saw a Cabbage White and what I thought might be a Harvester before I got out of the parking lot but it was about 45 minutes before I saw another butterfly. Later I saw two Harvesters together. Saw a W. Fox Snake that was at least four feet long. Warm, sunny and windy to start and cooler, cloudy and windier later.

2:35 to 4:02 PM. 66-71 degrees F, wind 0-8 mph. The Brockway and South Brockway (west) sites are described in Ann's Jackson County butterfly watching guide on SWBA's website. This was the very beginning of Cobweb Skipper flight - saw a male in South Brockway but none in the excellent Brockway patch. The Frosted Elfin was in Brockway.

Sunny, mid-day: Had 8 Cabbage White total along the trail, no other species seen.

A chilly, but sunny day. The Duskywing skippers were out. The Eastern Tailed-Blue that I saw was the tiniest butterfly that I have ever seen! It was only about half the height that I would expect one to be.

Quite windy. These were the only butterflies I saw in about two hours in the conservancy.

Beautiful day. 61 degrees and sunny. Glad to see several different species of butterflies today.

My wife and I went here seeking out the Olympia Marble. We were getting near the end of our trip, heading back to the car when finally we found what we came for. There were plenty of American Coppers flying around.

I saw 14 other species but did not have my close-focusing binoculars with me (argh!) so my counts were not terribly accurate. So, I am just reporting the FOY butterfly. Butterflying w/o binoculars does make you appreciate how tiny elfins are!

67 degrees and sunny. Work day at Page creek. Harvey opened up for me today.

4:57 to 5:45 PM, 72 to 61 degrews F, 20% sunshine, wind SE 0-8 mph. The weather was failing and butterflies were shutting down.

63F, sunny, calm.

11:35-1:20 PM, 62-65 degrees F, wind SE 0-6 mph. Found Red-disked Alpines on 4 out of 4 bogs tried, including two ones we'd never found an alpine on before: 1.1-1.2 miles south of Hwy 70, 1.4-1.5 miles S of 70, 1.8-1.9 miles S of 70, and 2.3 miles S of 70. 18 Alpines at 2.3 mile bog, combining ones along road and out in the bog. Henry's Elfin at the 2.3 bog, where we've seen it before. Also found Red-disked Alpines south of FR 136 and in 2/2 bogs tried east of FR 505 in Riley Lake Area, plus 27 Freijas on those 3 bogs.

All the Red-disk Alpine and Freija Fritillaries were very active with little opportunities for photos

The sites are described in Ann's NW Wisc. bog butterflies article on SWBA's website. Phenology is a week or more behind Price County. 69-70 degrees F, 85% sunshine, wind SE 0-10. These two bogs had above-average Freija counts among the 11 bogs we surveyed today.

The Red-disked Alpine was blown over flat on the side of the road and just laid there while I took photos. The Freija Fritillary photo was the only one that I got close enough to take a photo.

Made several stops in the Chequamegon NF in Taylor Co. today, the only butterflies I saw were these.

I saw my first Monarch of the season today!

Black Swallowtail- one, Cabbage White- eleven and Chironomus plumosus- one million plus or minus a hundred thousand or so. The swallowtail was very small.

2:30PM, low 60s, overcast all day.

I was on a birding field trip while attending the WSO Convention in Ashland when I was pleased to find a new lifer for me, the Brown Elfin.

1:28-1:47 PM, 68-70 degrees F, 10% sunshine. The Frigga surprised us, because other butterfly phenology suggested we would not find any yet. Both of us got exellent looks abov and below.

This site is right on the border between Forest and Langlade County. I saw 7 south of the border also. There were lots of teneral Chalk-fronted Corporals that were chasing the West Virginia Whites.

6 of the 7 bogs are east of Three Lakes on Forest Roads 2182, 2414, and 2174. 1:25 to 5:51 pm, 77-81 degrees F, 100% sunshine, wind 0-10 mph.

Also saw a Duskywing.

Finally warm enough in Milwaukee for butterflies. The mating E. Tailed Blues were being harassed by another which wanted to get in on the action.

77° Sunny. 11-Noon.

Finally, more butterflies in my yard.

11:50 am to 1:00 pm, 69-78 degrees F, 60% sunshine, wind 3-15 mph

85° Sunny. By this time last year we had all seen thousands of Red Admirals. Today was the first. Lady was in our yard. Saw another monarch laying eggs at Page Creek this afternoon..

only 62f, cloudy, windy when I arrived. Feeling butterfly deprived, I took a shot at a couple hours sunshine. Around 1pm butterflies started moving. Most everyone seen was pretty fresh. Difficult getting close to most, very movement sensitive. Couldnt get close to one white which wasnt an O. Marble. Crescent/gorgone also too fast to ID. Numbers still small but increasing.

Good to see my first monarchs of the year. But where are the cabbage whites and clouded sulphurs that usually entertain us in between other species?

Observed ovipositing on Queen Anne's Lace and parsley in our garden.

Killed the only Monarch I have seen this year with my windshield near Waupaca. Windy and humid. 10:30 to 12:30. Followed a blue that landed on a lupine for a second but it never landed again and I lost it. I was thinking Karner at the time. Oh, and an E. Hog-nosed snake.

The Mourning Cloak hung around my front yard most of the day. I also saw my first Tiger Swallowtail for the year, but I was driving at the time, so I couldn't determine which species.

Nothing unusual, just nice to see butterflies again.

Yes, that's right -- one stinkin' Cabbage White! It's the only species we've had in our yard this entire cold, wet spring! And I don't mind telling you, I'm getting a little hungry for something more!

Observed eating water melon in 20 mph winds in my back yard.

84° HUMID & Partly Sunny(at times). Lupine in full bloom. No Karners. 10:30-11:30 AM

Sunny, cloudy, sunny, cloudy, cloudy, sunny, cloudy, thunder, rain. 12:30 to 2:00. Emmons Creek Rd.

It was very windy and warm this afternoon when I saw my first monarch of the season flying around the trees in the backyard!

Sunny, temp in the 70s, but with all-but-howling wind. Bummer. Still, spotted first Canadian Tiger Swallowtail and first Monarch.

Clouds, sun and wind. 10:30 to 12:30.

Also saw a Common Green Darner

81,sunny, humid, rather windy.

Too windy to get a photo. I have waited along time to see a butterfly this year . Heading to Navarino wildlife area next too see whats there.

Gale force winds but sunny for 3 hours made butterflying difficult. Saw many blues and duskywings blow by into the distance. Went to one of three places on the meadows with some wind block just before the storms hit. Blew my video cam over into the mud. About had a heart attack running for the truck as the rain started. Oh and it hailed. But! I am glad I went.

75F, partly cloudy, breezy. 2:30 pm.