Butterfly sightings for May 2016

Only 15 minutes to survey butterflies. Sunny but temp around 50 degrees.

All nectaring on dandelion near parking lot.

Chequamegon National Forest, FR-130 South to intersection FR-501. 12:30-1:30Pm "Two Bogs" about 1/4 mile apart on FR-130. Nineteen sightings five species. One great Bald Eagle posed for me!

Warm, sunny afternoon. Saw my first Trillium.

My first ever Henry's Elfins at Sandhill! American Ladies were mainly nectaring on dandelion or laying eggs.

Saw FOY Tiger Swallowtail in flight while driving slowly from a parking lot by the river. No way to positively ID if it was a Canadian or an Eastern Swallowtail, though.

Photographed Olympia Marbled

3 sites inside the park and one nearby

The Ladies were busy trying to lay eggs on pussy toes. Also saw 4 White butterflies but no id.

61-71° Sunny. About 3 hours all together with Doreen Sonnenberg.

Sunny, 11-2

I was unable to identify three fast flying butterflies. One was orange and the other two were brown. I also saw two Six-spotted Tiger Beetles.

71° Sunny>Mostly Cloudy. Saw a Sulphur and 2 Duskywings that I couldn't ID. Note the curled up wind tips of the Juvenals.

A brief unsuccessful try for Brown Elfins on the bog (one American Lady) and in one savanna. Also surveyed one prairie.

I could positively ID 4 but there were at least 10 more "Blues" skipping along the small alfalfa field and woodland edge at the top of the hill.

Trying for Brown and Hoary Elfins in Marquette County and found 1 Brown Elfin in the barrens. Poor weather conditions for racking up a high Olympia Marble total. 1.4 hours, 62-69 degrees F, 15% sunshine, wind 5-15 mph.

I also saw an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail flit across the road in front of me yesterday.

72° Sunny. 4 hours. The male owl kept calling to the female and following her. She came to my call. Searched the "home farm" for Brown Elfins. Found 5 of the Eastern Pine Elfins on Blueberry bushes. Saw 2 more possible Harvesters & a Possible Question Mark.

Individual on gravel parking area

Later afternoon. The American Ladies were mostly active along Wachter Road.

Many butterflies flitting around (I think mostly Red Admirals and American Ladies but some commas/question marks and a swirl of about 6 "blues". I'm only reporting those I positively ID'd on the ground.

Also one Grapevine Epimenis ovipositing.

Incidental while Atlasing in the Whitewater CE Block. Also saw my first Variegated Meadowhawk of the year.

Sunny warm afternoon, a bit breezy.

Searched both sides of Headquarters Road from 0.4-0.8 miles South of 20th Street West. It appears to have some Frosted Elfin potential, especially the east side. 25 minutes, 70-73 degrees F, 100% sun.

4 sites inside Sandhill Wildlife Area and 4 sites outside the fence (1.5 of which are owned by the DNR) nearby. Six are historic Frosted Elfin sites and at least 3 are historic Henry's Elfin sites. Three hours searching, 3 hours, 60-73 degrees F, 100% sun.

I went looking for my first Freija Fritillaries of the year. I found them all on Riley Lake Rd. road. No Brown Elfins! This was my first Boreal Long-lipped Tiger Beetle since 2010.

It was a swallowtail kind of day. I haven't ever seen so many black swallowtails in one place. Lots of Eastern swallowtails too. One of the mourning cloaks was enjoying one of the park amenities--he spent quite awhile perched on a metal grill.

After seeing so many Black Swallowtails at Blue Mound State Park, we were delighted to see even more at nearby Brigham County Park.

Also noted Red Admiral butterfly eggs on stinging nettle

Finally able to document Freija Fritillary in Sawyer Co. after 10 years of off/on trying; this is a nice population on the southwestern range extreme in WI. All were fresh patrolling males; one paused to nectar on leatherleaf just long enough to snap a blurry photo but otherwise they were constantly on the move.

Surveyed 14 miles of transect. Butterflies got less active after the temperature got above 85 degrees F. 67-93 degrees F, mostly sunny. The Olympia Marble count is exact. We failed to ID more than half the duskywings we saw.

4-5 pm...mid 80's and sunny

Warm but windy. All the Freija were seen in hummocky Sphagnum fuscum bog meadow/savannah 0.5 miles S of County "N" (brief search of that section).

11Am-1:30, 68 degrees, Sunny & Very Windy. Hope to photograph Elfin's. Not much opportunity today, for good photos, strong winds! Seven species, a tiger swallowtail - but no photo for id, and three Forage Looper Day Moths.

Four bogs on Forest Road 137, 2 on FR 505, and one south of FR 136. 10:27 AM to 2:09 PM. 60-69 degrees F, 75% sun, wind NE 5-10 mph. The Red-disked Alpines were all south of FR 136. We have seen 500-950 Brown Elfins on the same bogs on a good day, but the "Brown Elfin Wave" population cycle seems to be at its low end. See Figure 2 that shows this wave in our 2015 paper "Assessing abundance patterns of specialized bog butterflies over 12 years in northern Wisconsin USA" in Journal of Insect Conservation 19:293-304. Avallable full-text at
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10841-014-9731-8

The field of clover, grass and dandelions that will be home to Bobolinks was full of Clouded sulphurs today.

Surveyed the last 21 minutes before the weather shut down.

Red Admiral was laying eggs on stinging nettle in my garden plot.

Mid to upper 50's and sunny but little butterfly activity; surprised not to see any spring azures given plant phenology. Some areas look intriguing to look for Hoary Comma in Wisconsin.

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Excited to find a fritillary. Unfortunately, it moved on before I got a good picture.

56-62 degrees F, 95% sun, wind 5-10 mph northeast.

Spotted in my yard.

also one tiger swallowtail

The alfalfa fields were covered with Clouded sulphurs. The others were seen while collecting morels in the woods.

Got a Lifer Silvery Blue, and the Juvenal's Duskywings were "puddling" in some gravel near the road.

Very Breezy, 83 F from 12-4 pm

9 species. Photo of American Lady by Dorothy. The little lady was laying eggs.

In wooded area

Surveyed the far northern portion of site (0.4 miles S of Cross Road) late in the day (didn't reach the best habitats until 4:30pm). Has great potential for Red-disked Alpine and localized Frigga Fritillary. Zero Brown Elfins was a bit surprising.

5 bogs on Forest Roads 2182 and 2414, plus 2 other bogs. 29 of the 30 Freijas, and Both Red-disked Alpines, were on the bog north and east of Wolf lake. We walked about 0.8 miles NE up a RR grade from FR 2182 to get to a snowmobile tail at NW end of our Wolf Lake bog route. The Compton Tortoiseshells were on the RR grade.

Re-survey targeting Red-disked Alpine; site looks fantastic for a large population but no luck despite decent weather during most of search (10:35am-1:35pm). Sightings include adjacent uplands; the Henry's Elfin was tippling along a muddy logging road through logging regen young aspen woodland with a couple wet willow thickets.

Walked the blue/black trail out of Homestead Hollow. Warm, mostly sunny. Also saw an Indigo Bunting and a Scarlet Tanager.

I also saw a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle.

54° Mostly Cloudy. Doreen and my Mom got to see the Juvenal's from about 8 feet away. Lifer for them.

These were seen while doing yard work. I was surprised to see anything today, it had snowed yesterday and got down to 19F over night.

Had snow in the air Saturday morning in Roosevelt Twp., but Sunday looked more promising, so I tried the Namekagon Barrens. Too windy, too cool, only saw a single Olympia Marble there. Loads of bearberry present, but not a single Hoary Elfin. Walked north on a two-track road half a mile east of junction of St. Croix Trail and Namekagon Trail--it was protected from the wind, and here is where I did find some Erynnis. Saw the hair plume on the hind tibiae of the Dreamy. The azures were marked like form "lucia".

Weather: Partly cloudy, around 62 degrees, winds light. Habitat: Open grassland bordered by red pine stands. U.S. Forest Service pollinator survey.

65° Mostly Sunny. Juvenal's Duskywing egg. It is smaller than the head of a pin. The female buzzed past my face and landed on the leaf. Deposited the egg and flew off. Saw her land on another leaf moments later.

This site has experienced some improvement in trail quality since my last visit several years ago (tho you'll still get wet feet after a rain). Nothing special re BF today, but the woods were echoing with a wide variety of songs. Highly recommended for those of a birder persuasion.

A bit early in the season here; just a few spring ephemerals in bloom. The Ladies were looking for the pussytoes. Also a couple pale Sulphurs/Yellows of unidentified species.

Perfect afternoon with more flowers than butterflies. Lots of Trillium and Jack-in-the-pulpet. One Mayapple blossom open and one pink Trillium.

1.3 hours on the bog covering both north and south of the railroad. The Frigga Fritillaries were 5-20 meters south of the railroad tracks in area with lots of Dwarf Birch.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was a black form female.

There were many small brown/orange butterflies in the fields and esp. the pasque flower prairie that probably were mostly Am. Coppers.

Sites are all adjacent to roads formed by the rectangle of Hwy 70 (1 on south), Forest Road 505/Hemlock Road (2 on east), FR 136/Gates lake Road (1 on south), and FR 137 (3 on east, 2 on west). The Frigga Fritillary and Jutta Arctic flights were just starting. Two of the Frigga Fritillaries were south of FR 136, and 1 was east of FR 505 5.4 miles south of Highway 70 by road mileage.

A female monarch was observed laying eggs in a large patch of common milkweed, oak savanna habitat at Pleasant Valley Conservancy. She spent at least 15 minutes visiting plants and appeared to deposit at least a dozen eggs, also clearly rejected some milkweed plants. We were able to find four plants with eggs; these plants varied from 4 to 9 inches in height.

One site is east of County I about 7 miles south of US Hwy 8, where County Forest Road 602 crosses two ATV trails underneath a powerline. All 8 Chryxus Arctics that we saw at this site were less than 150 meters north of FR 602 in and near the more westerly of two ATV trails. The 2nd site is one mile south of County Forest 602 on the east side of County I where the road crests a small hill. All 6 Chryxus Arctics that we saw at this site were on the north-facing slope or flat areas north of the hill crest near the (only) ATV trail.

We tried 5 open areas and found 1-15 Chryxus Arctics at each. The Columbine DW was at the edge of a savanna.

Lots of wildflowers in bloom. Lupine, Shooting star, Marsh marigold, Columbine.

The Gorgone checkerspots and 15 dusted skippers were on first bluff prairie south of Rush crk rd. Five dusted skippers on second bluff south of RC Rd (only ridgetop examined). I spotted these during a Natural Resources Foundation field trip led by myself and Matt Zine.

77° Sunny. Couple-3 hours of fun. One area at Summerton Bog SNA was full of Coppers. Stopped counting Coppers while chasing down the Silver Blue who was kicking up loads of Coppers as it flew low over the Sorel and Lupine.

Five bogs east of three Lakes in the Nicolet National Forest along Forest Road 2182 (4 bogs) and 2414 (1 bog), and 2 other bogs. 17 of the Red-disked Alpines and all 23 Freijas were on the bog north and northeast of Wolf Lake we accessed by walking 0.8 miles NE on the railroad grade west of Wolf Lake until reaching the snowmobile trail going southeast onto the bog. We saw one unidentified Mustard or West Virginia White.

8:33-8:52 am, 62-64 degrees F, sunny, 0.5 miles walking.

9:01-5:40 PM, 62-64 degrees F, sunny, 0.5 miles walking. 8 hours of walking and 12.9 miles covered. Every site except Dike 17 and Stanton Road was in the top Frosted Elfin complex we know in Jackson County. We also saw an unidentified Tiger Swallowtail, 4 unidentified elfins, 1 unidentified blue, 1 unidentified lady, and 20 unidentified duskywings.

This is the 10th year for this SWBA field trip. 15 people participated and we found 22 species. Highlights were Dusted Skipper, 3 species of Elfin, Arctic Skipper, Common Ringlet and many Gorgone Checkerspots and Olympia Marbles. (The Swengels formed a 2nd party. Those results will be added in to be submitted as the Spring Wazee NABA Count.) Arctic Skipper photos by Lester Doyle and duskywing photos by Dan Sonnenberg.

Ninth annual Crex to the Barrens spring butterfly trek, arranged through the Natural Resources Foundation of Wisconsin. Weather was lovely, participants were wonderful, butterflies were present, but in low numbers. Entire area is very dry--there were no puddles, no damp road gravel, hence no puddling butterflies. Bearberry on the Barrens crunched underfoot. Dreamy/Sleepy dusky wings (ten) were not differentiated.

Warm sunny afternoon. Also so one skipper but too quickly to identify. Got a good look at the Giant Swallowtail but a bad picture.

It was sitting along the trail facing me, when I would walk way around it to try to get an open wing picture it would turn to keep facing me or would fly off about 10 feet. When I would repeat trying still to get the picture it would fly back where it had been or very close to it. I finally used my long lens to get a picture and cropped it ... alot.

Anyone Out There - Any info on this moth??? greatly appreciated (green above/orange below)!

77° Sunny 2 hours total. Got out of my SUV and nearly tripped over the Frigga's. The Frieja was on the South Side of the road when I first saw it. Red Disk and Jutta were not flying while I was there. Spent a lot of time scanning the bog for them. My quest was for those 4 species.

Single individual in woods

Just North of Young Road -Abandoned farm "uplands" field, burned off this spring and targeted to be restored. First Monarchs of the Season for me! Common Milkweeds were already up 4-6" in the burned off field. One unidentified Angle Wing.

80° Sunny. 15 Minutes. Got out of SUV. Made a puddle behind it. Walked to intersection. Found a Chryxus. Took a few photos. Walked back. Checked puddle. Drove ahead 50 feet & turned around. A Chryxus was already at the puddle! HA!! Chryxus was the sole purpose of this visit.

80° Sunny 30 minutes. Saw the Whites while driving and had to check them out. The first one took me on a 1/4 mile hike after IDing it with the binocs. The second one only about 75 feet where she dived into the toothwort. That's when I looked around and noticed the toothwort blanketing the roadside beneath the hundreds of trilliums. The W.V. White was my quest at Ada Lake, but now I didn't have to look there.

On Piper road just West of Ulrickson road intersection, a horse riding trail, as you travel south on it, by crossing a large field with "many acres' of Pussytoes The Pasque Prairie is found just to the West walking across the Pussytoes field!

Sites within 1.5 miles west to 1/4 mile east of Brockway Road, from 1/2 mile south of Castle Mound Road to 3 miles north of Bauer Road.

Sighted from our deck facing the Sandberg Woods

If anyone wants to raise American Ladies, just plant Pearly Everlasting. This morning I found 3 early instars (and two nests) in one square foot of garden. They appear every year.

Noticed while surveying for bees

It's been circling around my front yard for 2 days now. I can't recall ever seeing one in my yard before.

86° Sunny 1/2 hour. Searching for 1st emergence Karner Blues

Our production farm, 78 degrees, sunny with mild winds, 3:30 Pm - 5 Pm.

86° Sunny Searching for 1st emergence Karner Blues.

Positively ID'd six Karners, and followed a dozen more "blues" that refused to land. Lupine out very well along Stolte Road. Several presumed Gorgone Checkerspots also refused to land and be positively ID'd.

88° Mostly Cloudy. A couple trips to the marsh while the sun came out. Also saw a Mustard White laying eggs.

78 degrees, clearing but hot & humid. 1:00-2:30 Pm
A female Monarch makes her way through the meadow laying eggs on small Whorled Milkweed seedlings! Flushed two "Blue" butterflies that disappeared into the brush, I could not identify.

Cloudy trying to rain, foggy-misty, hot & muggy. NO KARNER's today!

Male Black swallowtail nectaring on lilacs

Went out in the field with the dog at noon and a monarch floated by, found a milkweed I hadn't noticed yet, and laid an egg on it. Tiger swallowtails starting May 17.

This was my first Monarch of 2016! I was ready to take a great picture when my battery needed replacing. Once I replaced the battery, however, the Monarch was gone.

I saw more than 15 of the Six-spotted Tiger Beetles in a small area on the gravel trail.

FOY Monarch! It was moving fast with the wind ahead of the storm front. Just a few feet from the ground but it never landed for a photo.

had one possible Karner's but never was able to confirm ID cause I was also watching childeren

Seventies, sunny.

Went looking for Olympia Marbles, but I ended up being too late in the season for them. Most butterfly activity was taking place beyond the treeless part of the trail, but before the forested part (i.e., where there were some trees but not dense). A few tiger beetle species were also seen (Oblique Lined, Big Sand, Festive).

Seen on five-acre hillside, old field vegetation

Late afternoon...sunny mid-low 80's. Made Stops at various beach areas and public boat landings around Lake Wisconsin.

Windy day--saw many other butterflies and bugs but they were too fast for me to identify.

At 11:30 am, Monarch flew by, did not stop although milkweed was available. It was windy, mostly sunny, mid 70's.

1/2 hour at 3 barrens spots along Stuckey Lake Road, with poor weather

81° Mostly Sunny 1:30-3:30 PM. Saw a tiny Blue and disregarded it the first 2 times I viewed it thru binocs. After taking its photo and blowing it up I saw a tiny tail and orange spot. Hurray! Saw an orange skippers shoot by. Looked and looked, and just before I left they showed themselves again.

Found at least a dozen tiny American Lady caterpillars on pussy toes at the edge of our woods!

Spotted while running errands near West Towne Mall.

57° Cloudy> 72° Sunny. 10 AM - 12:30 PM. Got to play tag with KJava and her birding friends who ended up looking at a lot of butterflies.
Wet sand & scat were popular with the butterflies. Osprey was out in the center of the barrens.

2 bogs along Highway 35 north of Moose Junction, 2 south of Milchesky Road, 3 bordering County Highway A (Bear Lake bogs) south of Amnicon lake, and Lyman Lake Bog. Good weather. Red-disked Alpines were on 4 different bogs. We saw one Frigga Fritillary on the east Moose Junction Bog and one on Bear Lake SW. We saw Jutta Arctics on every bog except on the usually good bog for Juttas, West Moose Junction. We saw Freija Fritillaries on every bog except the two Moose Junction bogs and Bear Lake SW.

80 degrees, sunny, windy.

Mostly sunny, 75 degrees F

Mostly cloudy, with some drizzle and temps in the low 70s. 2:00-5:30pm.

Stopped to check the Fassett's Locoweed, which is just starting to bloom. I noticed several weeks ago that something has been eating the tender flower buds of these plants. I was surprised to see the Silvery Blue in the parking lot.

Many (25+) Cicindela repanda also seen.

Also saw a camouflaged looper caterpillar on smooth blue aster and a female cecropia moth

The monarch was nectaring on irises.

This segment of the trail heads south from the Verona baseball fields along Badger Mill Creek. A riparian environment with lots of willow - prime habitat for the Viceroys. There are branch trails into woods and open fields. Nicely maintained. Recommended.

Tiger beetle back again this year feasting on ants.

Seen heading toward Kevin and Raul's plot...

Lots of lupine, but few Karners.