Butterfly sightings for April 2017

on abandoned gravel road

Beautiful day, a few Eastern commas and a mourning cloak, and then a surprise Red Admiral

Sunny, mid-60's. FOY butterfly and Tiger Beetle today. The Eastern Comma was at home and the Oblique-lined Tiger Beetle was that the Wildenberg Sand Prairie near my house.

Sunny, with temps in the 50's F. We saw at least a dozen commas, but were only able to confirm the ID of three Easterns. The others were also likely Eastern Commas, but we couldn't rule out Gray Comma. We also saw several moths, species: "The Infant".

Sunny, 60F, no wind. Butterfly landed in patch of crocuses and then flew off above the roof. First butterfly of the season in the garden.

Disappointment was not seeing any Scarce Infants on same stretch of road where I saw five on Tuesday. Weather conditions were very nice--low 60s, light winds, mostly sunny through mid-afternoon.

Found a Compton in the same garage window as last year, trying to get out.

This was the first butterfly of the year for both of us.

Saw three- only one stopped.

Sunny, 51 degrees and breezy near the shore of Monona Bay.

Upper 50s and sunny. Mid-afternoon.

Sunny with high around 60.

Low 50's, sunny and a strong wind off of Lake Michigan.

one Red Admiral perched on road

Junction of Mountain Road and Stage Road. Also saw one Infant Moth Archiearis infans.

Sorry I'm late in sending this in to you

Sunny, warm April day had 6 Eastern Commas on a log that I had cut down.

Badger State Naturalists field trip. Four Oblique-lined Tiger Beetles also seen.

An excellent butterfly day! Light wind, 75 degrees, many blooming plants, including flowering bulbs and small ground-cover plants. My estimates are modest. Very rarely have I seen this many butterflies of different species in our shady backyard at one time.

The first Red Admiral of the season. Warm and cloudy - 65F. Flying in a restored savanna.

70 deg F, sunny
11:11 am

Red Admiral was nectaring on willow and the Ladies were laying eggs. Also saw several Bumble Bees.

Also 8 Common Green Darners

72° Partly Sunny. Quick Stop on my way home from Madison. There were some damp areas on the gravel. Am guessing they had a little rain last night. The Rock Cress in our garden is blooming. High hopes for finding the marbles I lost.

Had a few other Commas of unknown species. Nice to see the Azure.

My first butteflies of the year! Also two moth species (5 Scarce Infants, 15+ The Infant). I thought the Green Comma was a roadkill but when I picked it up its legs were kicking! I put it down at the side of the road and it walked and opened it's wings. Also 2 unidentified commas.

Also saw what I think was a Lady sp., but it got away from us. Had a few Obliqued-lined Tiger Beetles, too.

visiting sap on injured apple tree branch

Partly to mostly cloudy, high around 72.

For the (unofficial) record, the first butterfly in our garden this year was a probable Polygonia way back on February 18, but I was unable to secure an identification at the time.

Remnant prairie natural area privately owned. Seven sightings, two unknowns -but if I had to guess they were Comma's

Another great day for butterfly viewing! I tried to count them at one point and counted at least five American Ladies and six Red Admirals. But to be honest, they were flying all over the backyard and I was only viewing one small garden patch. I also saw the same Mourning Cloak I saw yesterday with the damaged wing. I thought I saw a Painted Lady yesterday, but I didn't get a photo and I didn't see it today. The butterflies and bees (of all species) really like the Pachysandra ground cover that's in bloom right now.

There were also two butterflies flying that I could not identify.

Partly Cloudy 72 F.

Lots of Red Admirals and other butterflies were congregating on the dripping sap from the workings of the Yellow-bellied Sapsuckers today.

62° partly Sunny. Dandelions and buttercups are open. Pussytoes will open after tonights rain. The Eastern Commas we were seeing in numbers last week are no longer present.

About 50 degrees F. and Sunny.

The butterflies were attracted to a blooming pussy willow.

Trail along Root River. Trail had Ironwood trees with sap holes from Yellow Bellied Sapsucker. Compton's Tortoiseshell was attracted to sap.

Lower 50's with occasional chilly wind. Very docile - more interested in sunning itself than worrying about me. Another flitted past as I was attempting the photo.

We also saw three other butterflies that we didn't get a good look at.

76 degrees, light wind. I thought I saw a Painted Lady last weekend, but was unable to photograph it. Was able to snap it with the camera today. Also more American Ladies and Red Admirals today. Low estimate again on the numbers--they seem pretty plentiful flying among the Pachysandra.

Almost 70 degrees, windy and partly sunny. Saw 2 Red Admirals, one was depositing eggs on stinging nettle. Also saw a Lady sp. nectaring on snow glories.

Sunny day, around 70 degrees and windy.

My first butterflies of the year in Manitowoc County. I saw all four species nectaring on a single willow.

Red Admirals doing a courtship dance high in the air.

Only our 3rd to 5th Wisconsin butterfly individuals seen this year.

The butterfly was sitting on a tree trunk next to a flow of sap, displaying its red stripes in the sun.

Three American Lady butterfly flying our newly opened flowers. Easter Sunday. A very bright and blue day.

Also Cicindela tranquebarica, scutellaris, and splendida. Bethany Harman gets photo credit for the Buckeye.

The Red Admirals were all nectaring on Nanking Cherry blossoms.

Monarch seen flying across a grassy area near the lake in Kohler-Andrae State Park. Monarch flew across the grass for a short time then flew up and landed in an evergreen tree. I apologize for the poor photo quality, this is a screen shot from a video taken through binoculars.

Saw this red admiral in my side yard

resting on narrow concrete ledge (in the sun) in a mixed flower/plant area. Then flew off

on my compost pile

67° Sunny. Doreen and I took a quick ride around the farm. Whites were in the fields. Most of the brushfoot butterflies were in the yard or around the weeping elm & boxelder stumps that were cut a month ago. Didn't get out of the ranger to look for the azures that I had seen the past two days along the marsh. C.B. was the real surprise when checking the stumps.

I didn't expect to see a butterfly at 7:15pm with a temperature of 39 degrees but...

Lots of Anglewing-ish butterflies flying quickly along the trails, too quick to positively identify.

65 F but very windy

Low 70's, partly sunny, windy. The Azures were active along Wachter Road.

Of note, yesterday we had the first spike of milkweed appear in our garden - by four days the earliest date ever (except for the aberrant 2012).

17th and 18th many spotted, often landing on maples.

Partly cloudy, 55-60 degrees.

Sunny and 50 degrees.

63° Sunny. One small patch of Pussy Toes had 9 Lady's at the Home Farm. Had an AM Lady, Red Admiral and an Olympia Marble fly by me at noon while I was replacing light fixture by our patio. That started the days fun. Still waiting on the E.P. Elfins and Juniper Hairstreaks.

Also a few larger whites, I think Mustard. Bumblebees and Dragonflies are also getting busy. Sunny, low 60's.

Cloudy and 45 degrees.

Looking for an early Henry's Elfin. 51 degrees and sunny. No Henry's but the most Bumble Flower Beetles I have ever seen! >25

59 degrees with gusts of wind swirling leaves around at times. Still a nice day to be out until I started picking off all the ticks. FOY Olympia Marbles and Red Admiral for me.

One seen just off patio on a dandelion blossom.

Went tromping around for an hour and a half and I saw this one from the car.

First observed on tree bark weeping sap from woodpecker damage. Relocated to deadwood on the ground nearby.

Calm day; mid-60s. I saw more butterflies than listed here, but I wasn't fast enough to ID or photograph them.

7:15, while watching 3 Short-eared Owls

Beautiful day, mid- to upper-60s, sunny, early afternoon. We spent several hours watching the Olympia marbles and American ladies. The Olympia marbles were everywhere and were quite photogenic. The American ladies were busy flitting about--none stayed in one place long enough for a photo. So nice to feel surrounded by butterflies again! When I looked at my photos I realized that one of the whites was in fact a clouded sulphur.

Trying to clean up the property (pulling garlic mustard and getting the vegetable garden ready) there were so many distractions! Saw several Red admirals, a lady sp. and a cabbage white. Also saw several Flower bumble beetles and native lady beetles on blooming Spring Beauties, not to mention the birds. A beautiful day!

Monarch in my prairie restoration

Sunny...mid 70's. First Time seeing Olympia Marbles at this location.

First tiger of the year in our garden, cruising the treetops.

Also pleased to report that our pipevine survived another winter and is starting to leaf out.

All before 12:30pm. I don't think I've ever had two Tortoiseshells in one day before. Lots of the large, green Dragonflies.

Dirt roads and both the Lupine Loop Trail and the Boghaunters Trail. No boghaunters today.

Checking for an early boghaunter without any luck, but I did see a Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, my first tiger beetle of the spring!

Sunny, mid-70s, beautiful day.

3 of us hiked the "geology" trail from the top of the mound.

72° Sunny. 10:30-3 PM. All seen while pulling out fence. Doreen was with me. The area that had so many Lady's a couple days ago only had one today.

Sunny, upper 60's. My first Tiger Beetles for the year and the Pasque flowers are blooming.

Sunny, 70's. Spring flowers in full bloom.

I also saw a small unidentified brown butterfly.

1 Red Admiral was depositing eggs on stinging nettle

Surprised to see a BST. Other butterflies blew by in the wind, ID's uncertain.

51 degrees, mostly sunny

Not much dry land with the high water. Saw butterfly in the gravel drive area

Partly cloudy, 72 degrees, wind at 9mph

Sunny, low 70s, little wind

Not much out there yet. Was out there around noon today.

Late morning, sunny. Just a quick stop to walk to the overlook. The county continues to cut out trees and undergrowth in the woodland, so the habitat is changing.

overcast, breezy; in prairie, savanna, wet meadow and adjacent alfalfa field

Seen while photographing birds. I didn't really expect to see any butterflies with the temperature in the upper 40s with sun.

46 degrees with some sun. I was checking for Henry's Elfins and, not surprisingly, I didn't see any but there were two Juvenal's Duskywing!

We also saw three other Lady species.

Warmer up north than down south! 50 degrees F when I saw these guys at around 1pm.