Butterfly sightings for August 2013

No photos today, I forgot my camera.

Same giant swallowtail.

First Dainty Sulphur seen since last report on July 26, same area of the Sand Prairie.

The Ghost Tiger Beetle was also taken today in the Lodi area, and was one of four seen.

Beautiful day to have a beautiful butterfly come, my first sighting of Monarchs this year...he was on the butterfly weed and stayed for quite a while

Only place that I can consistently find Compton Tortoiseshells.

Butterfly was on a swamp milkweed plant, stayed for a while. Partly cloudy day, 76 degrees, slight wind.

75, sunny, ~3PM

Besides the butterflies, I saw 4 Hummingbird Clear-wing Moths and 2 Hummingbirds.

The cabbage whites really like the Gaillardia (blanket flower) in my garden...

77° and variable skies. Good Day! Swallowtails have only been single before today. Confused Male Black Swallowtail trying to mate with the gladiolus. First saw him trying to put the end of his abdomen in the end of the 2nd and 3rd flower from the top.

Four eclosions this week, originally from eggs laid on our Pearly Everlasting in June.

2:23-4:24 PM, 74-82 degrees F, 40% sunshine, wind 5-15 mph. We walked almost 3 miles. A male Purplish Copper was 120 meters west-northwest of the junction of Apache Road and County W. Another Purplish Copper was more than 600 meters NW of that intersection, in a giant nettles patch.

Quick trip with Doreen in hopes of seeing a Dorcas Copper.

Sunny and breezy. I expected to see lots of butterflies. Only saw a few. Plenty of bees, dragonflies and goldfinches. Also saw a hummingbird clearwing.

A beautiful day, but not many butterflies. I especially notice that there are no grass skippers. Is it because of all the heavy rains?

Found several monarch eggs on the milkweeds, but haven't seen any caterpillars in the wild.

Last day of surveying Regal Frits.

12:30 to 3:30. The war bird photo will give you an idea of the sky. A Summer Azure found a little patch of sun and opened up for photos for about 10 seconds.

sunny, 60F, 9 am. Not much to see with the cold morning, but these early risers. The eyed brown was so worn, I wasn't sure what it was at first.

Flying through my backyard. The Question Mark was a beautiful fresh adult. Stayed long enough for a good look, but not quite long enough for a picture.

Mainly a birding trip, but a 6 mile round trip walk down Old Marsh Rd at noon netted (no pun intended) a few butterflies. Weather perfect: warm but not too hot, sunny with a few clouds that occasionally tempered the sun, and a breeze that kept away any mosquitoes.

~3PM, 80s, sunny

Tons of Duns

I didn't find as many butterflies as I had hoped for, but other things like the Eight-spotted Forester moth and the tiny Tree Frog kept my hike interesting.

Walking the Marquette Segment of the Ice Age Trail north from the Portage Canal we spotted many of these

Went specifically to check for Karners. Mild success. Not much in flight--butterfly milkweed done, and rough blazing star just starting. Latter was attracting some Speyeria. Karners were not nectaring, and there was no damp gravel to attract anything.

partly cloudy, 65F, noon. Another cold morning, and just this one seen hunkered down in the vegetation, allowing me to get pretty close with the camera lens.

Town of Menasha. Partly sunny and a little wind. 12:00 to 1:45.

Cool and cloudy. Checked the Common Buckeye later and it was still sitting in the same spot.

I only had about 1/2 hour to search for Karners before the rain started. I didn't see anything by the boat landing but had success in the field on the east side of the road in. One other Karner spotted in a different area on the way home. Note the caterpillar on the bottom of the photo of the Coral Hairstreaks.

Unexpected Cycnia (Cycnia inopinatus)

Dun skippers in record numbers in the meadow I was surveying.

Partly cloudy. Moderate Temp. About 3:30 PM. Many Cabbage white, Great Spangled Fritillary, a few blue, a Red Spotted Purple and a Monarch

Coming home from Pennsylvania at a turnpike stop I spotted a strange critter which turned out to be a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth. Hard to Photograph, they move pretty fast.

After 5:00. I saw the robber fly in the same spot as I saw one in 2007.

Here's an example of how strange butterflying has been in the Madison area. Yesterday I walked around Stricker's Pond in Middleton. There were lots of wonderful nectar sources, and NO butterflies besides 30+ cabbage whites. Today I stopped at Babcock Park in McFarland to look at waterfowl and found quite a few butterflies in the parking lot! (Granted there were some nectar plants between parking areas, but nothing like the selection at Stricker's.) You never know. The Eastern tiger swallowtails were especially photogenic.

~1PM, partly cloudy, 70s

3:30-5:30

70s, ~12:30, cloudy

I've been looking for an Aphrodite all week in Oconto County. Finally found one.

These were seen during about three hours of seed collecting in the prairie where there were thousands of nectar sources.

79° Parlty Sunny. First Least Skipper here this year. Found Indian Pipe in two places.

70-79° Sunny. KB survey. Count was low. Got an excellent look a butterfly that I wish I had a pict of. ID is questionable. Didn't include it.

70's, mostly sunny, late afternoon. The common buckeye and one of the fritillaries were extremely worn, with huge chunks missing from their wings. It was good to see a skipper. I've only seen a few this year. I found this insect interesting.

mid 70's, mostly sunny, light wind

It has been a very poor year for butterflies. Have seen one grass skipper, a Peck's, June 17 since then none , last two years they and other grass skippers were abundant. Other butterflies seldom stay long enough to get a photo. Hopefully things will pickup.

Take care

Butterfly numbers have been low all summer. Happily, the Monarch was a female depositing eggs on common milkweed.

I found this weedy area along the railroad bed between Fox Point and Whitefish Bay which is turning out to be better for butterflies than the gardens and parks in the area this year. Also saw two Hummingbird Clearwing moths and a Hummingbird feeding from the Monarda.

Larson Road, Colic Slough Road and Marsh Road. 9:30 to 12:30. Went to check if we had any storm damage at the cabin. We were lucky. Just some large branches. I talked to a guy at the IGA who lost over 1000 mature trees along the Waupaca River near the stone bridge.

Lots of hairstreaks on the few remaining butterfly weeds in bloom and fritillaries on blazing stars that are just beginning to bloom. The highlight of the afternoon was the giant swallowtail seen at the south end of Stolte Rd.

Scouting trip for Saturday's field trip

A lovely day, but butterfly numbers are still disappointing. Got a photo of a beautiful fly which I can't identify that was feeding on flowers with the butterflies. More Hummingbird Clearwing Moths today.

Butterfly seen at our prairie garden. Wings were a bit worn.

Lots of giant swallowtails, including a pair who flew together for a very long time. Many species visited a muddy patch, including a red-spotted purple and a viceroy who spent quite a bit of time together in the same spot.

My first Peck's skippers of the year.

noon-3:30 pm, started out cloudy, upper 60's. the sun gradually came out and it warmed into the 70's. quite humid. Saw several of either glassywings or dun skippers (I'm leaning towards glassywings). Saw one tail-less E. Tailed Blue, that had me hoping it was something else, until I got home and compared images. Overall, that was the most abundant sp. Saw a couple of huge (>1") robber flies. Quite the fearsome looking beast when I zoomed and cropped the picture I took. Right after taking the photo, it took off, then dive-bombed what may have been a six-spotted tiger beetle, then flew off with it. I saw more butterflies in the more natural parts of this property. The restored/planted prairie, while in full bloom with lots of nectar sources (and quite beautiful I might add), didn't yield as many sightings.

Fewer butterflies here than in previous years. Saw four more Hummingbird Clearwing moths today.

This was the 7th year for this annual field trip of the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association. 27 people participated. We found a total of 33 species and 259 individuals in 7.85 hours of observing. Three species were new to the count: Northern Pearly-eye (1), Meadow Fritillary (6) and Variegated Fritillary (1). Species with highest numbers of the seven years were: Great Spangled Fritillary (18), Coral Hairstreak (3), Painted Lady (4), Common Roadside Skipper (8), Dun Skipper (2), Least Skipper (26) and Cabbage White (12).

10:41-11:20 am, 73-75 degrees F, 100% sun, wind SW 2-10 mph. One male, 1 female, and 3 unknown gender Leonard's Skippers.

3:10-3:46 pm, 79-83 degrees F, 90% sun, wind SW 0-8 mph. One female and 5 unknown gender Leonard's Skippers.

Visited garden stopping at zinnia flowers. One of the tails damaged - seemed to be folded over itself. Flight pattern okay, but a lot of wing movement to compensate.

74° Sunny to Partly Sunny.

74° Partly Sunny
Pecks evaded me 3 times then hid under this blade of grass before disappearing in a flash.

Not much Species variety today.

12:30 to 3:30. Mostly cloudy, windy and cold (<70). A C. White was on the same flower for a half hour. Checked it out and an ambush bug had it.

Nectaring on the open faced red zinnias in my garden.

4 of the Karners were seen on the west side of Southwest Dike Trail. Might be a new area to look for Karners.
A banner year for Rough Blazing Star so spent a lot of time checking for Leonard's but found the 1st one on Bergamot.

Beautiful sunny day with beautiful flowers and still few butterflies. Had my first Six-spotted Tiger Beetle (notice it has 8 spots!) of the year.

For a week now, a male has been patrolling and basking in my vegetable garden, primarily less than 10-feet off the ground, frequently resting on the green beans and cucumbers or a nearby honeysuckle.

Thought I would check out my old stomping grounds. It was supposed to be a few degrees warmer out this way. It may have been but it was still pretty slow. 11:30 to 3:00.

sunny, mid 70's, light to no wind

saw my second grass-skipper of the year today

While eating in Fennimore, we heard a Eurasian Collared Dove.

74-78° Sunny>Cloudy>Partly Cldy.
Red Spotted Purple landed on a branch right next to the truck window as I was driving the woods road at Doreens home farm.

Just got home from shopping and was unloading groceries when it flew around my yard for a bit. It didn't land for photos though.

also saw 3 other kinds on our walk today too. it was warmer today than it has been in the past few weeks perhaps why more are out right now.

Spent several minutes in our dianthus feeding on the red flowers in our back yard. We were within a couple of feet.

American Snout was on Rattlesnake Master flower
head. .

Lots of viceroys, no monarchs that we could tell, but we did see a monarch caterpillar. Least skippers were everywhere. Two of the giant swallowtails were extremely photogenic. We saw many chickweed geometers, one of my favorite moths.

78° Sunny Noon-3:30PM
Found the Common Sootywings in 2 different places. Little Yellows were hard to find today.
Only 20 minutes at Hay Lane.

82° Sunny 5-7PM
For this time of the day this place was nuts! Surpised that I didn't see any other Frits.
Saw a giant when I got to my parents at 7:30.

80° Sunny. 4-4:30 PM
Biplane was the most interesting thing flying. Flew over at Ret. Prairie and my Parents farm, too.

74° Sunny

On Dwarf Butterfly Bush

Re: Photo: Look Ma, no hands!
Nighthawks and Common Green darners migrating over Washburn this evening. Early winter? I hope not.

10:30-3:00

Feeding on peppermint in my back yard.

The Buckeye was I think a first-ever for our garden. The Lady was one we had raised from an egg found on Pearly Everlasting.

We saw a Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. It flew around our flowering planets for about an hour. It liked the color red. What a beautiful sight.

11:30-12:30. The Purplish Frits were fresh.

9:40 to 12:30. Sunny and warm. Slow going. Not much over there.

Didn't have time today for a road trip, so I stopped at a local Verona park, 12:00 noon-12:30. Most of the cabbage whites and Eastern tailed blues were enjoying a wet patch of gravel/dirt near the edge of the pond.

The Aphrodite Fritillaries were attracted to the echinacea behind our house on a warm sunny afternoon.

9:30 am, sunny, 70F. Thought I had my first monarch of the year sighting, 'til I saw those 2 black lines.

Warm and sunny day. I'm finding monarch eggs and caterpillars on the milkweed. Also found 5 common buckeye caterpillars, but haven't seen an adult yet this year. 2 hummingbird clearwings were sharing the bergamot with the bees. Also saw a small grass skipper.

5 pm, mostly sunny, 81F. Not a lot of butterflies, but very active.

Pope Farm prairie

The Giant Swallowtail was flitting around my south facing front flower garden while I was watering. It stopped for about a minute and spread its wings wide and was perfectly still. I went to get my camera but it was gone when I cam back out. I had met Mike the week before in the area and he told me about recent sightings in the area. This is my first time on the site. Really nice. Thanks

Road walking the Ice Age Trail just west of Lima Center we found this Black Form Eastern Tiger Swallowtail among the thistles and grape vines on East Willow Road.

Mostly out looking for shorebirds but there were a few butterflies about. Also a couple of Celery Looper Moths, one of which was feeding from a flower with its wings open, which made me mistake it for a spread-wing skipper of some sort at first.

Mike met me in Clam Lake and he found a fork(plastic) in the road at a fork in the road on snake trail. Great couple of hours butterflying!!

Low 80s and Sunny. 3-6 PM

I was sitting on my enclosed porch when I noticed this large butterfly on a flower in a hanging basket. It flew away, but then came back so I was able to get several pictures. I later learned that it was a giant swallowtail.

A friend called me about all the caterpillars on her dill. There were about 60 Black Swallowtail caterpillars in this picture! I have never seen so many at one time!

Giant swallowtail on penta plant on my deck in the Town of Middleton

An excellent day, with a fine variety of species. Sunny and 75 degrees.

Monarch, white cabbage

WIOUWASH Trail, Shady Lane, etal. 9:20 to 10:45. Streaky. Walked 1.5 miles and saw ten Least Skippers before I saw any other species. Then three Viceroys in a row. Seems like we are in a pretty big lull around here right now.

80s and Sunny. Trying to leave for home and the butterflies were still coming.

It is disheartening to walk for 2 hours in meadows filled with native wildflowers and see so few butterflies.

9:30-12:30. Most surprised by the Long Dash which was still somewhat fresh.

Around 10-:30 am in our perennial garden in our phlox mass planting we spotted the Giant Swallowtail

What a difference a day makes. Today I had five different species in the first 200 yards. Out from 9:30 to noon.

Many trees down from the storm a couple of weeks ago. Lots of hard work was put in to get the trails open. I had heard that the trails at Ledgeview Nature Center in Calumet County are closed for the year because they had so much damage.

Two of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails were dark morph females. The Northern Pearly-eyes were sitting on the side of a tree in the woods.

70s to low 80s Cloudy changed to full Sunny. Stopped to take a pict of a sulphur and ended up finding the Purplish Frits. The one on the bottom in the pict with 3 was dead.

Over 90 degrees today.

I saw three cabbage whites on the way in the door and on the way out 1 landed on me and surprised me! I was stopped in my tracks by the little lightweight :)

i

Enjoying my Impatiens planted in a strawberry jar.
Gone when I got back with my camera!

Feeding on peppermint in my back yard.

I visited all of the good liatris patches in the park, and almost no butterflies. Five monarchs flying but not nectaring. Usually the liatris here draws monarchs like a magnet, plus skippers and other butterflies, but not this year. I spotted the Eastern tiger swallowtail near the parking lot, nowhere near any of the nectar sources. Another example of how unusual this year has been.

Mid-upper 80's, around noon. The skippers were very entertaining. They were all on one bush. Not much throughout the rest of the park, despite a good number of nectar plants.

Overcast morning. Lots of flowers, but pretty dry, at least until the rain started at about 10:30am. More birds than butterflies today.

Cool, cloudy and humid. 10:30 to 1:30. Colic Slough Road, Marsh Roads north and south of Weyauwega.
One of those tornados a couple of weeks ago crossed the north Marsh Rd. Took out about 95% of the trees in its path through a pine plantation west of the road and about 80% of the hardwoods to the east. I have not seen this many large oaks snapped off since the Wautoma tornado.

I walked the shore of Dueholm Flowage today just because you can with the water drawn down. Not exactly prime butterfly habitat Later drove to Southwest Dike Trail to look for Karners (none) but saw the Giant flying along County Rd O Flowage on the way there. Last year hundreds of Dainty Sulphurs, this year I've only seen 2.

Lots of Silver-spotted Skippers today. I like the way they look totally different with their wings open. They are so plain drab brown that way, unlike the striking pattern of the underwing. And the Red Admiral is almost the exact opposite, with a striking pattern above with a subtle almost dried leaf appearance from below. The Red-spotted Purple was on the beach sipping from the wet sand.

5:00 pm sunny, 80 deg. Went to all flower baskets on back patio.

Noon-2:00. Most of the action occurred in the parking lot and adjacent area where it looked like soil was being prepared for prairie plantings. Most species spotted here. Swallowtails and fritillaries were nectaring on the large thistle patches along the road. A lot less going on in the prairie itself.

2:30-4:30. Highlights: A fritillary trying to burrow under the grass, and a meadow fritillary who decided to sit first on my slacks, then on my shoe, then on my arm.

On Dwarf Butterfly Bush

1st time this year than the Monarchs went into the double digits (barely).

Totally kicking myself for not having my camera available! Huge Swallowtail flew by and landed near me for a couple seconds. Gorgeous species

Noon-12:30, sunny and 82. What a difference a few days makes. When I was hear this past Wednesday (also around noon), I walked through a lot more of the park, but I saw only 5 monarchs and they were flying, not nectaring. Today I spent less time and visited only one area, a trail where I know there is lots of liatris. Monarchs were everywhere and they were very active, flying from plant to plant. Very cool.

Very sunny, warm and breezy day. Great-spangled fritillary was in the violets, depositing eggs I hope. Also saw 1 monarch fourth instar caterpillar on common milkweed and 2 third instar black swallowtail caterpillars on dill.

I went in hopes of spotting a certain type of butterfly seen years ago, but with no success. And not many others either, in part because the prairies (other than the remnant one) and hayfields have disappointingly been mown down to stubble.

7-8pm, 85F, windy, mostly cloudy. Rough blazing stars just starting to get underway. Not much to see though, as far as butterflies go.

Walking the Ice Age Trail we spotted this Giant Swallowtail in a front yard flower garden on Rogers Street in the old Milton College neighborhood.

25 MPH wind gusts and 90 degrees by 10 am. Just butterflied a 100' section of Southwest Dike Trail on the western side looking for Karners. One Butterfly Milkweed plant was still in bloom attracting the Blues.