Butterfly sightings for August 2014

The viceroy was very fresh. It was the FOY for me.

Thought I saw a bird fly into the phlox, then discovered it was a butterfly, was lucky enough to snap this nice picture of its markings

Backyard flower garden. The Giant Swallowtail spent 10 minutes flitting from one phlox to the next.

PM 4:15 - 6:30, A haze covers most of the sky, with the sun barely showing through occasionally!
Thirty-one sightings for twelve species. The Bog Copper was right there too close for a telephoto, a sure photo, then my backing up, it to move back in the brush about five feet, still in view the auto focus didn't work, I went to manual and by that time it was gone!

Wonderful morning surprise to have a red admiral feeding in my yard!

AM,10:30-12:30pm: After the fog lifted this morning it became a sunny, gusty & windy day. Eleven species of butterflies observed for sixty one sightings! Ctenucha Day Moths "11"

84° Sunny. Had people from Ontario, Canada stop today to take pictures of the "Butterfly Barn". Zinnias were the big draw in the yard/garden.

Sunning on blacktop driveway.

Sunny day with mild winds, winds gone by noon.
AM 10:00 - 12:30 pm Sixteen species from seventy-three sightings. One Haploa moth

6:20-6:50. Sunny. I hadn't stopped here this year so decided to see if there were any Karners flying.

Most Hairstreaks and Skippers were worn and difficult to ID.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was enjoying the milkweed in our backyard garden. This was the first sighting at this location.

Red Admirals were everywhere along the two mile stretch of road that we visited.

While kayaking the lake saw several clusters of both Giant and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on mudflats along the shorelines - probably at least 15-20 of each.

This landed on a vine in my backyard in Waupaca. Beautiful butterfly.

These butterflies were all in the parking lot and in the plantings surrounding the main building.

The Pink-edged Sulfurs were in the parking area of Lupine Loop Trail.
Lots of White Admirals on Boundary road and Bewick's Road.

The American Copper was very tattered.

The Karner blues were fluttering around in groups of 3 or 4 along the gravel road. The friendliest butterfly of the day was a worn viceroy who perched first on my shirt, then on my friend's finger, then on my friend's hat.

Tigers and Giants

My yard, flower beds. Great day, many swallowtails around all afternoon. I had fun.

This Red-Spotted Purple was fluttering around the backyard of our lake property. It landed on my husband's hand and didn't want to leave. He had to carefully lift it off, and it continued to follow him around. He took the picture on his hand, and I captured a later shot in the Black Walnut tree. Also, nearby was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, and earlier in the day I spotted two or three Monarchs and a Monarch fourth-instar caterpillar, as shown in the photo. Warm day, mid 80s F, humid.

Hiking in the afternoon, also saw 4 White-striped black moths.

Was a great day to walk the dog - a few butterflies to be seen. I wish I had brought my camera!

Seen on our mid day hike through the Table Bluff Segment of the Ice Age Trail. It was mostly sunny and it appeared to be a good day to be a butterfly.

One with rather badly beaten wings feeding on snowball Hydrangea. Second, perfect , on a purple cone flower.

In yard on prairie milkweed and in the meadow

8:52-11:03 am and 2:35-3:15 pm. 72-81 degrees F, 32% sunshine, wind west 4-8 mph. We walked 4 miles in the grassland. All of these butterflies except the Giant Swallowtail are from walking surveys. We were trying to find Gray Coppers in more areas for 2014 and found them in all five 40-acre plots tried, including two spots we've never surveyed before. The Giant Swallowtail (at the bridge on Town Line Road 1/2 mile north of Griffith) was probably the first one we've seen here in about 200 visits during the butterfly season.

2:15, 86, sunny

Great Ash Sphinx caterpillar.

Sunday: 12:30-2:30 Pm, Hot, Muggy Sunny with a few clouds, little or no wind. Not much butterfly activity here today compared to previous visits this season. Eight species from twenty-one sightings.

Sunday late afternoon, 4:00-5:00pm, Sunny, Hot & windy. Walked a one mile mountain trail with my nine year old grandson. Three species from four sightings.

Second sighting within the past week.

Also one Hairstreak sp.

Sighting of Question Mark in my backyard!

Purplish Copper blowout! 11:31 am to 2:12 pm and 4:01-5:20 pm. 72-81 degrees F, 32% sunshine, wind west 4-8 mph. We walked 4 miles in the grassland and an additional 1.5 miles of roadside walking surveys. All of these butterflies are from walking surveys. We also saw more than 500 Red Admirals on County Hwy W. Today was about trying to learn more about Purplish Copper distribution, focusing on seven of the eight 40 acre (1/4-1/4 mile) tracts (we surveyed one of them July 30) bordering Archer Road west of County Hwy W. We found 217 Purplish Coppers at Archer Road and in all seven 40-acre plots searched there today. The coppers concentrated in scattered patches of the wider-leaved of the two species of Smartweed (Polygonum) we saw. The largest number of coppers (>50 per plot) were seen in the 2nd quarter mile west of County W, on both north (all parts of plot) and south sides (especially immediately southwest of the one quarter mile mark), and in the first quarter west of County W and north of Archer, (especially E, N, and S parts of plot). It is likely that the first quarter west of County W on the south side of Archer is also very good (NW part of plot likely the best area), as we found 6 Purplish Coppers here July 30 under failing end of day weather. All six 1/4 miles of roadside (2nd, 3rd, and 4th quarter miles west of County W, on both south and north sides) we walked along Archer had 3-10 Purplish Coppers, but the 4th quarter west of County W had the fewest coppers. We also saw 15 Purplish Coppers in upland grassland immediately NW of the Apache Road/County W jct. (11 of them were in two Smartweed patches 20-40 meters north of the big ditch and about 100 and 250 meters west of County W, respectively). Two Purplish Coppers were north of Alp Avenue east of 5th, more than 2 miles from the other places.

10-1:00. Mostly cloudy and then rain after I made it back to my car!

Very humid morning, rain in the afternoon. The Red-spotted purple was spending a lot of time on American bittersweet so I checked the leaves after she left and she had deposited eggs! I didn't know bittersweet was one of their larval food plants. Also saw 2 hummingbird clearwings

Private residence bordering the MIlwaukee River North branch, a twenty four year old, half acre native wildflower meadow. Fifty-six sightings with fourteen different species observed. & Two day moths: Clearwing Hawkmoth & False Crocus Geometer

Made two stops: Scuppernong Springs Nature Trail (16 Giant Swallowtails!) and Scuppernong Ski Trails.

Cloudy all day, so the only butterfly was a Pearl Crescent that was sitting outside of Culvurs.

I found this Red-spotted Purple butterfly sitting in the sun on our patio door ramp. It stayed there for at least 30 mins., slowly flapping its wings. I was only about 4 feet away from it and zoomed my camera all the way to max. It would start to fly away, but always stayed within a few feet from the last perch.

I saw what looked like a large orange butterfly out of the corner of my eye, so I grabbed my camera and went outside, thinking it was a Monarch. It was fluttering so fast on the Swamp Milkweed that I couldn't positively ID it, but after getting closer I thought it was either a Giant Swallowtail or an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Its wings were moving so fast that none of my photos came out particularly well, but they allowed my to study the markings and determine it was a Giant Swallowtail. I'd thought perhaps that was the case because it was the largest butterfly I've ever seen. The reason it looked orange was probably because of the dappled oblique light of my shady backyard.

Morning temps in the high sixties must have kept Hairstreak numbers down as yesterday they were plentiful but today I only saw 3. Only one Karner of the 6 I saw was a female.

My camera battery was dead--no pics. Swengels did some awesome counting the day before so I'm just giving a list of species seen. Great butterfly area that I never knew about before.

Sunny & Windy day, there were sixty sightings documented for a total of twelve species and one False Crocus Geometer! First Buckeyes of the season we have seen in this area and One Giant Swallowtail which eluded us avoiding a photo. One Eastern Tiger Swallowtail melonic of "black" form!

Tiger Swallowtail feeding around our Purple Coneflowers

7-7:45 pm. Lots of milkweed here. This could be a great place during Monarch migration.

Beautiful day for butterflying. Was out on Marsh Road from 10:00 am to 1:20 pm. Total of 19 species of butterflies and one new 1 for Marsh Road...a White Admiral.

At one of the boat landings there was a Black Swallowtail, a black female Eastern Tiger, and 3 Giant Swallowtails, all within an area of about 1,000 square feet.

Most of the Monarchs were seen on the Erstad Prairie. The bright green frog is one of our two species of Gray Tree Frogs, but I'm not sure which one. They can change colors from gray to green and back again. The Ruddy Duck family was seen from the Schoenberg Marsh observation platform north of Priem Road.

Late afternoon brings surprises to our home a Giant Swallowtail in the front nectaring on a Purple Coneflower and a Red-spotted Purple in the back yard nectaring on Giant Hyssop

We also found a female Elusive Clubtail (dragonfly).

Sunny & Windy day this AM. While inspecting progress being made on controlling invasive species, I happened upon this butterfly that is a great find, as I don't often see them here in Wisconsin a Little "Lisa" Yellow! Wow! and in the city too.

Sunny & Windy afternoon, employees are harvesting production seeds from wildflowers. 101 butterfly sightings for fourteen different species.
Most interesting to me are the presence of Giant Swallowtails & Buckeye butterflies.

3-6PM, overcast, ~75
Cabbage whites were on the highway.
Sunset was about 1-1/2 hrs north of the park.

sunny, light wind, and in the 80's

seen the most skippers and swallowtails this year

also seen a Columbine or Wild Inigo Duskywing, cannot tell them apart

White Admiral, only one seen at this location on this day

Went looking specifically for FOY Common Branded Skipper where I normally see them every year at this time.

5:31-5:59 pm, 75 to 72 degrees F, 20% sun, no wind. Butterflies were shutting down but we found the target Common Branded Skippers (2 females, 2 males, 9 unknown gender) and what was probably our last Common Ringlet of the year.

Both Monarchs were females depositing eggs. The blooming Bergamot was especially attractive to the Swallowtails and a Clearwing Moth.

Many Giant Swallowtails, all mint, sometimes in loose pairs possibly representing emergence of locally raised generation as prickly ash is common here. They are showing a strong preference for the nectar of swamp milkweed and thistle over boneset, vervain, clematis, etc. No clear preference of one vegetation over another for perching. They are seen in fields, over a pond, and along woodland paths. Flight generally fast and erratic, capable of covering hundreds of yards very quickly.
Monarchs also abundant here (and seen feeding and egg-laying on swamp milkweed) but far outnumbered by the Giant Swallowtails. Occasional Tiger Swallowtails, all Eastern. I did not see any Black Swallowtails today and, as in previous years, they are the least common of the three swallowtails seen here.
Great Spangled Fritillaries still seen in some numbers - mostly with wings worn or even tattered. I have looked for but not seen any other fritillary here this year.
Numbers below are estimated, rather than a formal count. Smaller butterflies also present in numbers but not identified to species level.

Scouting trip for the field trip tomorrow. Hopefully with more eyes we will find some other southern immigrants.

Sunny. 78 degrees. Light and variable East wind.

Five spots searched along Stuckey Lake, Bird Sanctuary, and Bird Roads. 8:37-9:22 am, 72-77 degrees F, 80% sun, wind southeast 2-3 mph. The Leoanard's Skipper was northeast of the jct. of Stuckey Lake Road and County M.

12-3,sunny, 80s
I saw 13 fritillaries, but could not get close enough to most to ID. The black swallowtail was a first for me and the family of swans was an extra treat.

Same bogs surveyed July 13 and July 24 or 26. 9:50 am to 2 pm, 77 to 87 degrees F, 90% sun, light wind. Most or all of these bogs had Bog Coppers and Dorcas Coppers on July 13 and July 24/26. Today we found Bog Coppers on 5 of the bogs and Dorcas Coppers on 2 of them, for a minimum 27-day flight of those species on those bogs. We saw 50 Purplish Fritillaries at the bogs along County A; 30 at Bear Lake North (>25 of them along the road, mostly west of road) and 20 at Bear Lake Bog (11 of them well out on the bog). The Striped Hairstreak was at Lyman lake Bog and the Appalachian Brown was in the Moose Junction West bog. It is unusual for us to see no Common Ringlets in these bogs on our early August visits.

So excited to see a Giant Swallowtail, this is the first one I've ever seen! The picture is poor quality, I was more interested in watching it nectar on the swamp milkweed and wild bergamot. It stayed for about 10 min, maybe I'll see it again tomorrow. Also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing and a Beautiful Pearly Wood-Nymph caterpillar (moth)

This guy or his friends are around just about every day. Also have many Monarchs including 11 eggs I saved yesterday from milkweed sprouts growing into my neighbor's lawn before he mowed them down. Over 20 monarchs raised for the year so far.

Many large robber flies also seen.

1-2:30, sunny, 86

This morning I went on a very interesting and informative Natural Resource Foundation field trip to the Madison Audubon Society's Goose Pond Sanctuary. Resident manager Mark Martin gave us a tour of the various Goose Pond prairies while discussing the prairie restoration activities that were occurring on the sanctuary properties. (Thank you Mark!) The attached butterfly list was made incidental to this field trip. I suspect that I missed other species and individual butterflies.

10:19-11:18 am, 79-83 degrees F, 85% sunshine, no wind. The Common Branded Skippers (9 females, 10 females, 34 unknown gender) were all found in the same two spots as we saw them on Aug. 7, off the Snake Trail and Namakagon Road, respectively.

This was a brief early afternoon visit along the paved trail located north of Priem Road.

It was a glorious day for a walk through the park!

This was the 8th annual Avoca field trip of the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association. We found 156 butterflies of 28 species (about average). Immigrants found included Giant Swallowtail (10), and Little Yellow (17), and Fiery Skipper (1). Five species were found in the highest numbers of the 8 years: Red-spotted Purple (8), Eastern Comma (4), Tawny-edged Skipper (2), Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (8) and Harvester (2).
Mike Reese was able to persuade a Harvester to land on him with a prolonged photographic opportunity! The Harvester was transferred to the finger of an 11-year old boy. We also found Little Wood-Satyr (3) which represents a seldom seen 2nd brood. Finally we saw 6 Common Roadside-Skippers. The main miss was the fewest Red Admirals ever (0)! (In spite of large numbers at some other sites.) Other finds included Blanding's Turtle, a Band-winged Meadowhawk (dragonfly), a Praying Mantis, a large hornet (Cicada Killer), and a Northern Water Snake.

Muggy and warm, between 2 & 4 pm. Frogs were everywhere!

This was a robber fly trip to look for one of the rarest insects in WI. I haven't seen Promachus fitchii since 2008 and I have only seen it at this site. No one else has reported this species to me. Look for it in grassland areas. I saw 17 P. vertebratus and I did see one P. fitchii. Yeah!

~11 - 1 PM, 80, sunny
The silver-spotted skipper was in my yard. Others were in the barrens.

Was feeding for a very, very long time on pink phlox. Late afternoon.

82F, calm. Edwards Hairstreak observed ovipositing on Hill's Oak.

Hot, humid sunny afternoon, 78-86 degrees, strong gusty winds: 2:00 - 6:00 PM. Twenty species observed from two hundred twenty sightings! A great "great" great butterfly day - a hazy cloud cover moves in late afternoon!

All sightings in my butterfly garden. Tiger Swallowtail visited geranium (unusual), goldenrod, and petunia. Monarch is one of several dozen reared and released this season.

The Giant Swallowtail was back today!

Seen on my porch.

I only hit Hilda's Corner Rd at Upper North Fork Flowage. FOY Leonard's on Blazing Star.

This female Juniper Hairstreak turned up in our yard. She is fairly worn but still recognizable.
The 14 Pipevine Swallowtail eggs and caterpillars taken from our Dutchman's Pipe vine are now resting in their respective chrysalises.

The Swallowtails were glorious today, most of them dining on thistle and bergamot. The two Meadow Fritillaries chose a pile of scat.

muggy day. With Joan Berkopec and Ron Eichhorn

Butterflies very scattered, and rather sparse. All species most wary, and seemed to smell the camera from twenty feet away!!! First Buckeye of the season for me.

Most of the butterflies were seen in my flower garden enjoying the Butterfly Bush and Coneflowers. The Coma was seen in the brush near the woods. The area is generally very swampy, bordering the Sheboygan County Marsh, the Sheboygan River, and a natural pond.

The weather is getting cooler. Strong winds from the north all morning and early afternoon, but late afternoon had only a light breeze. Birds are starting to migrate (especially hummingbirds), and there were a lot of butterflies out in the garden and woods.

Cool and partly cloudy day. Was surprised to see a Viceroy out and about!

2:50-3:30 pm, 79-82 degrees F, 0% sun, no wind. The Leonard's Skipper was a male; the Leonard's Skipper we found earlier today in Douglas Co. was a female. We saw at leas 7 unidentified hairstreaks.

I was excited to find two Harvesters. Lifer for me. The darker colored one was half the size of the other. Turtle-head is in bloom.

First Fiery Skippers I have seen this year.

8:57-9:45 am, 61-67 degrees F, 100% sunshine, wind north 1-3 mph. We were hoping to find Purplish Coppers because Ann Thering found them here in 2009. Today the Purplish Coppers were all in a sedge meadow bordering the south and SE side of Bonneville Lake. We saw 6 males and 2 unknown gender ones, so maybe there is some time left in the flight here. All 6 Karners were females and in the more shaded slower phenology eastern 1/4 of the site.

Virgin Prairie remnant, private ownership, Wednesday is sunny with scattered clouds, gusty winds, and 64 to 78 degrees: 9:40Am - 4:10Pm. One hundred Ten sightings for sixteen species and two different Clearwing day moths: 1 Snowberry & 5 Hummingbird!

And 1,367,478,945 White-faced Meadowhawks ;)

Village Road & Indian, 4:30 Pm - 5:30 Pm. a hazed cloud cover, occasional appearance of the sun. Only two species seen. White Admiral & Great Spangled Fritillary. The fritillaries did not want their pictures taken -

Sunny, calm, and temps in the low 70s.
It has been 3 years since I have been here this time of year. There are fewer nectar sources available this year, especially no thistle in the east field which was a wonderful nectar source in 2011.

3:35 PM incidental while walking into lab

4-6PM, sunny 70s

Beautiful day. Low 70s and sunny. Highlights of the day: the Hackberry Emperor - only the second I've seen in my life (good looks, but no good photos) ; and the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. The Giant Swallowtails are always fun to watch too.

I hiked 6+ miles over 7.5 hours and came up with a grand total of 3 butterfly species, one of which was at the boat dock and the other two in the same interior bog. Pretty amazing!

It was resting on my hummingbird feeder and stayed quite a while, until a hummingbird came along.

We have about 600 sq ft of haphazardly planted native flowers in the back yard.

All three pictures are of the same blue.

78 degrees and mostly sunny. Commas like to play at intersections with the Striped Hairstreak and Common Branded Skippers like to play with the Common Ringlet.

Sunny & windy, 78 degrees, 12 Noon to 1:30 Pm.
Lots of blueberries fruit ready to eat. Shared a snack with my youngest grand son! Fifty-five sightings and four different species.

first one I can recall seeing

10:30 - 11:30, sunny, 70s

When I went over to investigate the milkweed, I was surprised and impressed to find at an orb weaver at least 2" in size. The Giant Swallowtail was a real challenge to capture with photo. He or she moved quickly from flower to flower. I learned this haven for so many insects is going to become a rope climbing course.

The Butterfly garden was awesome.....

My garden Had not mowed the lawn along the sea wall for three weeks. Least Skipper has colonized this tiny grassy area.

The Butterflies were on Snake Trail Rd. The Standing Cypress(6'+ tall) was on Hwy 77 West of Clam Lake.

Sunny & Windy, 72 degrees, 10:30 AM to Noon
Not much butterfly activity at this time.
Twenty-five different sightings for six different species! Most unusual an atypical Viceroy which is missing the HW black post median band!

Beautiful Black Swallowtail caterpillar in our veggie garden munching our parsley.

North end of road along the horse trail, sunny skies, temp. 76°.

Butterfly appeared struggling and injured. I transported it using a piece of cardboard to my balcony where I provided it with shade, fruit, and some sugar water.

The Great Spangled Fritillary was seen on the path from the visitors center to Wolf Lake.

The Giant Swallowtail was nectaring on jewelweed. One of the Monarchs was very faded and depositing eggs on common milkweed. The silver-spotted Skipper is my FOY. T

The giant has been in my garden all week in the middle of the day.

Weekly dragonfly survey.

Red clover field in full bloom. 2-2:30 PM

Badger Prairie Park normally has large patches of liatris. This year, not so much. However, what was there was blooming nicely. I saw my first Peck's Skippers of the year. Many of them were interested in one particular piece of liatris. My challenge was to see how many I could get into one photo. (Answer: 5)