Butterfly sightings for August 2015

Found on our screened patio net.

2.25 hours. We walked 1.5 miles in the grassland together, then we each walked a different 1 mile of roadside. We have rarely or never before seen a Dion Skipper here.

Hot, humid day--high 80s. Butterflies and Milkweed were plentiful. Silphiums (mainly Cup Plants and Rosinweeds) were in full bloom, and seemed to be the preferred nectar source. Some Goldenrod was starting to bloom, too.

5.2 hours. We walked almost 6 miles in the grassland. The Purplish Copper total might be our highest for one day here.

Female, black form Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. Photo taken approximately mid-day, about noon.

9:15 to 11:30. Finally dry enough to take a long walk in and around the willows looking for Acadian Hairstreaks. No luck... maybe a little too late.

25 or 30 years ago I walked this same area in late August. I was in awe of the incredible number of bees there. The roar was amazingly loud. I bet I stood there ten minutes just trying to process how many bees surrounded me. Today the bees numbered way under one percent of that other day. Fewer willows and wild flowers too. Flora change is probably due to a combination of natural progression and canary grass.

Another moment of awe here came in October or November in that same time span. I walked through a patch of alders and flushed 25 or 30 Short-eared Owls, one at a time as I walked through. They were silent and ghostlike. Almost eerie. Two very memorable events here for me.

Sunny, high seventies and windy.

I was sitting out on our front porch and noticed the little skipper sitting on some Brazilian Verbena. Looks like it is a Peck's Skipper, a lifer for me, and quite a cool looking one at that.

Feeding on my lavender flowers

I spotted 2 tiger swallowtails (one dark form) and a giant swallowtail on phlox in the back yard, all at the same time..

We have seen one swallowtail at a time, never 2 or 3, at our residence for a number of years.

11:30-12:30 walk. Didn't stay long because of the oppressive heat and humidity nearly wiped me out. Best sighting was a Monarch Cat on a orange butterflyweed.

12:00 - 1:15. Not a lot of butterflies here now, especially with all the nectar sources available.

Survey time from 11:24 a.m. to 1:23 p.m. 69 degrees, partly cloudy with winds approximately 5-15 mph, with gusts as high as 25 mph. Noticeable decline in abundance of butterflies recently.

Missed a lot of good shots today!
2 Eastern Tigers: one black and one yellow.
Monarchs have been the predominant large butterfly here for the past couple of weeks - the first time that's happened in a few years at least. The eight I saw included a mating pair that flitted in and out of my camera frame for a good minute or so. Still didn't get a good photo.

The female Monarch was depositing eggs all over the property. The Red-spotted Purple caterpillar was found a few days ago and formed its chrysalis today. Also found 3 first instar Promethea caterpillars on wild cherry.

3 pm to 4:30 pm. Warm and sunny not too humid.

2:00 - 3:15. Nice fresh looking male Fiery Skipper. First of the year.

9:30-11:30 sunny, 72, breezy. Joe-Pye weed and Liatris were blooming.

Catching up on sightings.

under a tree in the parking lot

in the parking lot of the Treehouse

8:00-9:00

8:45-10:30am warm and sunny. Many dragonflies too, mostly Green Darners.

Today the butterflies came to me. One of the commas was very worn and faded, the other two were bright and colorful.

6F, 2M Karner Blues. One of the males was very fresh. First WI Variegated Fritillary of the year. Last year we only had two sightings. Holopogon sp. (7mm long)

Survey from 11:49 a.m. to 3:16 p.m. Partly cloudy, 64 degrees with winds approximately 5-15 mph.

84° Mostly Sunny. Fresh Question Mark.

Seen while looking for robber flies. One photo shows a robber fly eating another.

flying and landing near our duck watering hole in our yard

Butterflies and bees frequent the echinacea by our house.

It was a great day to be looking for butterflies!

Many great nectar sources along the roads but relatively few butterflies utilizing them, even in sunshine at high noon. Season already waning!

I was heading to the doctor's office when I saw a large butterfly being buffeted by the wind created by traffic. No matter how hard the butterfly tried to fly out of danger, it kept getting knocked down. I did a u-turn and pulled in front of other cars to block the butterfly, hopped out of my truck and gently picked up the butterfly by the body, and carried it into the truck. The butterfly fluttered to the passenger door and rested. I took it back to my house, since it was close and had lots of food for butterflies (butterfly bush, bee balm plant, other flowers). When I stopped the truck in the driveway, the butterfly seemed to know it was safe, it fluttered over to the driver's door, and I opened it slowly. Once the door was open, I carefully offered it a finger to climb on, so it wouldn't crash into the window. Once I moved away from the door, the butterfly flew up into the yew bush, landed and rested. It did have a bit of a tattered hindwing, but was able to fly without too much trouble. When I returned from the doc's office, the butterfly was gone. A friend, Jaye, helped identify it as a Giant Swallowtail.

The Cabbage Whites were spotted on the way to the park, the Monarchs within the park itself. It was during the afternoon (2-3) warm and breezy. There were an absolute ton of bees as well.

on our deck facing the Sandberg Woods

Not much going on here.

Nice weather for finding butterflies!

This was a scouting trip for the Southern Wisconsin Butterfly Association field trip on Saturday that we advertise as seeing southern immigrant butterflies. NO southern immigrants were seen today! Very dry conditions.
One of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female.

Walked the Ravine & Beach trails. Sunny in the 60's.

Afternoon, no wind, around cut oranges in crab apple tree

Never saw a butterfly this big before! Gorgeous. (we also have lots of baby monarch caterpillars right now!)

Nectaring on swamp milkweed

We didn't have adequate acceptable weather to survey more than the four bogs with our most recent Purplish Fritillary sightings, and all of their roadsides. We think the Purplish Fritillary flight was past peak, although it topped our earlier count this year. The Purplish Fritillary count was higher than our best count in 2012 but lower than the counts in 2013, 2014, and most other years. All of the Purplish Fritillaries we saw were at Bear Lake Bog and its roadsides (both sides. especially west) and North Bear Lake and its west roadside. We also surveyed Lyman lake and Milchesky Road 1.15 miles. The Dorcas Copper was on North Bear Lake Bog, the same place we found our 1st Dorcas of the year on June 21.

4 Barren patches in 45 minutes to look for Leonard's Skippers. The 97 Wood Nymphs is not a typo.

Same openings as on July 25, but we didn't survey the Snake Trail Roadside this time. Our total count of Common Branded Skippers was the same as last time, but it decreased from last time in the rectangular opening bordering Namakagon Trail and increased at the other opening. Today's Milbert's Tortoiseshell was the 1st one we've seen this year.

Very warm and humid.

Timing around 3:30 p.m. Partly cloudy and 83 degrees, winds calm to light. This was probably the largest diversity of butterflies I have seen in northeastern Wisconsin in the last couple of weeks!

This was only the second time I have seen a Bronze Copper.

This butterfly was perched on rotting oranges that I leave out for birds and butterflies. The time was evening. It was getting dark, and I wasn't able to capture it with its wings open. If I see it on the orange again tomorrow, I'll try to get more photos.

Had a Harvester land near me while I was working outside. Didn't have a camera. I did catch it with my bare hands and then let it go.

Same sites as on July 24, but with 96% fewer Bog Coppers seen than that day. Port Wing Boreal Forest SNA West bog had most of the Bog Coppers, but we saw at least one on every bog. This is a complete list of what we saw.

2 stops, 45 minutes. Mainly looking for Leonard's Skippers, but we saw none of them.

Sighted on road, later on porch

This was a good day for butterfly sightings even though it was overcast. The skippers weren't very cooperative for photos, I had to take them from too far away.

All before noon. Very humid and warm day.

1.5 hours. Sites are three rights-of-way east of Sandhill Wildlife Area and a state-owned powerline ROW just south of Sandhill. We found Leonard's Skippers at 3 of the 4 sites. The combined Karner Blue Counts this summer counting the best day at each site (achieved on 2+ tries on three different dates July 15-30) was 247. Several of the Karners today were fresh, even newly emerged with crinkled wings, and we think a fair proportion of the Karners were from a partial 3rd brood.

North and south sides of County N for a 0.3 mile stretch. This is a complete list of what we saw. The Bog Copper nectared on Rabbitfoot Clover north of the road.

76 degrees and windy. I just did a count on 2 small areas of Southwest Dike Trail. The south end of the trail where it meets Cty Rd O was an interesting spot.

USDA Forest Service Pollinator Survey. Survey time from 2:00 p.m. to 3:55 p.m. Partly Cloudy, 72 degrees, light winds. Lots of milkweed and snagged some photos of an elusive Comma!

10:15am-1:25pm. I visited several locations, mostly along King Road. Cabbage Whites were very numerous today.

Monarchs everywhere, mostly on Showy and Rough Blazing Stars, so 16 is the minimum I could be certain of.

USDA Forest Service Pollinator Survey. Survey time from 2:55 p.m. to 3:26 p.m. and was conducted in an opening (about 20 meter radius) on the road, surrounded by rich hardwood forests. Flora diversity high. Partly cloudy and 74 degrees.

USDA Forest Service Pollinator Survey. Survey time from 12:37 p.m. to 2:14 p.m. Partly to mostly cloudy, 73 degrees, occasional gusts. We almost didn't see any butterflies until we were heading back and stumbled upon these two!

9:30 to 12:00, sunny, 70's

Breezy day. The beautiful Swallowtails of two weeks ago are getting a bit worn. Cardinal flower and Cup plant are in bloom.

Havester seen along Willow Trail

This Hackberry Emperor was resting by the building entering the international Crane Foundation, a first sighting for me.

Sixteen species. Little Yellow photographed by Dorothy. We also saw one whitish version. Other highlights were Common Sootywing and Wild Indigo Duskywings.

Dining on my butterfly bush. Mid afternoon, hot, sticky day.

On patio 5-10 minutes
Attracted to fragments of peat pot that contained a Rosemary plant and 10-15 earwigs

Mid-afternoon. Partly cloudy, temps in the low 90F.

We had yellow carnations placed on top of our Mother's casket, and a Black Swallowtail butterfly flew around and kept landing on the yellow carnations. The Swallowtail butterfly is on the first carnation to the right.

2:00-4:00 pm, Low 90's, Mostly Sunny. Lots of Cabbage Whites, Clouded Sulphurs, and Viceroys, smaller numbers of other species. Only one very worn Common Buckeye seen.

Sighted butterfly sun bathing on top of a roof at the Kohler Company.

This beauty has been at the impatience this afternoon. Had not seen one like this before. I believe it is a Giant Swallowtail.

11:40am

3 2/3 hours. 90-95 degrees F, sunny. This only includes butterflies seen while we walked 3 miles together in the grassland and each walked a different half mile of road edge. We have observed a 55 day Gray Copper flight this year, and probably gained Gray Copper sightings today on 2 forty-acre patches where we hadn't found them before. Butterfly activity dropped off after our 1st hour of surveying, due to the heat and their avoidance of drying out. We saw one female and three male Regal Fritillaries; 3 of Regals were in our 1st survey here, in a plot not usually good for Regals. later surveys in good Regal units found only one Regal, and we think Regals were hiding to avoid drying out. Giant Swallowtail are uncommon here, although we also saw one in 2014.

10:15am-1:50pm. Mostly sunny, temps in the low to mid-80F. We also saw about an additional 50 sulphurs which we were unable to ID to species.

Shelley and Davids Hamel's property. We surveyed for 55 minutes. The Purplish Copper and Viceroy on the bog. Everything else was in the uplands. Ann Thering and Shelley Hamel have found Purplish Coppers here before.

Mid-afternoon, sunny, sometimes breezy, sunny, and around 90 degrees.

The butterfly was on a black eyed susan flower in our front yard. It was sunny and hot outside.

11am-1pm. Hot, humid, breezy. The Viceroys were in large patch of Rattlesnake Master near the wetlands.

Hung out on a Walnut Tree for around 15-20 minutes. I have a Willow Tree in my yard that is it's host plant. Beautiful Viceroy!

The cup plant is attracting the swallowtails.

I saw it in my garden this morning...and have never seen one like this before. I went to get my camera and was able to get a few shots...not the best...but got it before it flew away. This was about 10am this morning.
(14th WI record for this species and the 3rd in 2015. Mike Reese)

In the seventies, partly sunny, no breeze, still wet from the rain.

These sightings were made incidentally as I collected prairie seeds.

Only surveyed two of the usual 4 sites because it was too cloudy to finish. 1 Leonard's Skipper and 1 Wood Nymph were at Van Zelst prairie; all other butterflies were at Mirror Lake Pine Barrens (MLPB) west of Hastings Road. On August 12 I found 3 Leonard's Skippers at MLPB and none at Van Zelst.

10:26 am

Found in field of goldenrods

Sunny in the seventies from 10:30 - 11:30.

Sunny morning in the seventies, breezy.

Spent about 45 min. on the trail by Lu's Pond just after lunch. The Viceroys were very territorial, flying about and chasing each other, any Monarchs that happened by, dragonflies and even a flock of goldfinches.

24 species. Many Monarchs. Immigrants were Fiery Skipper, Little Yellow and Common Buckeye. Other highlights were Common Sootywing and Tawny-edged Skipper. Also observed one of our favorite dragonflies, Wandering Glider. The Scissorsgrinder (cicada) was heard nearly everywhere (Potosi/Cassville/Lancaster). Its having a good year!

My wife and I tagged 100 monarchs in one hour and 53 minutes. We probably could of tagged at least 100 more.

1.75 hours. Warm and mostly sunny.

Three ROWS along Wood County X and one site in Sandhill Wildlife Area. The Reakirt's Blue, a male, was in the Sandhill Wildlife Area "Westfield", an opening not far west or southwest of the tallest observation tower along the Trumpeter Trail Drive inside Sandhill.

In 3 sites along County X surveyed August 10, 16, and 22, we found 6, 2, and 7 Leonard's Skippers on those dates, respectively.

Brutal winds, so I didn't stay long. This is my go-to place for Bronze Coppers. They're getting a little worn. Also, a few Cabbage Whites and Sulphurs.

Found seven monarch caterpillars while dead-heading in the Brener butterfly garden. Saw 15 monarchs nectaring on tall Joe Pye Weed while walking on Hillcrest Prairie.

Sunny and breezy. One of the monarchs was a faded female, depositing eggs. The common Wood-nymph was very worn.

Sites along Brockway Road, Bauer Road, cemetery Road, and Dike 17. We saw 14 Leonard's Skippers today in matched sites where we saw only 2 on August 16. We think the main reason for the increase is new rainfall since August 16, not a large improvement in phenology for finding Leonard's Skippers here. All 4 Peck's Skippers we've seen in the last 8 days were on Rough Blazingstars. It is unusual for us to see a Black Swallowtail here.

At 65 degrees, I wasn't looking for butterflies and didn't have a camera with me. So, of course, I see the first Painted Lady I've seen in years. Only got one (poor) pic with my phone before it was gone with the wind.

Monarch and Ailanthus webworm, (Atteva aurea) share a Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium maculatum) on the Island.

We have had many Monarchs this year but no luck in getting a good photograph so far.

Sunny but barely 70 degrees. Turtlehead is in bloom.

Huge swarm of juvenile Common Green Darners migrating and feeding along the river. A nearby Kestrel seemed plump and pleased.

Cool and sunny. All these were seen at the rain garden at the bottom of Waterfall Ravine which is full of beautiful flowers.
The Tiger Swallowtail was a dark female.

Photo of male Sulphur in flight is probably a Clouded Sulphur.

Mirror Lake Pine Barren (MLPB), 2 other sites in Mirror Lake State Park, and Van Zelst Prairie. 2 hours and 10 minutes; 69-77 degrees F, mostly sunny. 26 Leonard's Skippers at MLPB, 14 at Van Zelst, and 6 at Turtleville Barrens.

There were a lot of them in the grass near the waters edge.

Half of the Monarchs were nectaring on the abundant boneset on the western side of the property

One of the Monarchs was a female laying eggs. There were several Tiger Beetles.

Monarchs everywhere, which was great to see. It was interesting to see a silver-spotted skipper with its wings open. It stayed in that position for quite awhile. Also interesting was the red-spotted purple high up in a tree with the sun shining through its wings. A great day to be out.

Found on the edge of my father’s horse pasture Lincoln Co. Wisconsin

my son saw it on clothes hung to dry, it then flew to the edge the woods

The only one I saw.

Only 66 degrees but was happy to find my FOY American Copper

9:30 to 12:30. Dewy and mostly cloudy.

1:00-4:00, partly sunny.

Noon-2pm, mostly overcast with some ocassional sun. mid-high 70's. Not a lot of insect activity, three species of Tiger Beetles seen, including a Festive with some nice green iridescence. Also had my first Aphrodite Fritillary at this location.

This only includes butterflies seen while we walked 3.5 miles together in the grassland and separately each walked a different mile of ditch by roads. Half sun, 62-82 degrees F. We also found 2 mature Monarch larvae on Common Milkweed leaves.

This only includes butterflies seen while we walked 3.5 miles in the grassland. Mostly cloudy, 68-78 degrees F. All 3 Regal Fritillaries were females, and all found 350-450 meters west-northwest to northwest of the Griffith Avenue/130th junction.

Four tiger beetle species were also seen: 1 Cicindela scutellaris lecontei, 5 C. hirticollis hirticollis, 100+ C. repanda, and 1 Ellipsoptera macra

Early afternoon, high sixties, overcast just drying out from the rain.

Unfortunately, the discovery of the very rare Sleepy Orange was accompanied by the discovery that the DNR was spraying Black Locust trees nearby, particularly a small number that fall within the Sleepy Orange breeding habitat.
The Cabbage White female exhibits rejection of male courtship by raising her abdomen.

My last opportunity to photo graph an American snout butterfly was on our production farm property Washington Co., Newburg Wi on 080611. That day there was about a half dozen in the area. Today "Monday" afternoon at approximately 3Pm I went to our utility Van to get a piece of equipment, a butterfly flew in with me, and I just brushed it off my arm, not thinking, when it landed on the door arm rest, I realized it was something unusual, good thing my camera was on the dash!

Parked at Evergreen parking lot and crossed C to walk the prairies. The many kinds of goldenrod were in full bloom with asters and Prairie dock, beautiful.