Butterfly sightings for August 2017

Low 80's and breezy. Observed many Monarch eggs and cats on milkweed. The Whorled Milkweed is blooming.

Counted around 10 Monarchs on the Liatris aspera(Prairie Blazing Star) taking nectar in a rain garden

Postponed this trip until Tuesday because our favorite restaurant in Cassville isn't open on Mondays. Many trees down, here and there, from previous storms. Some spots closed off due to storms and flooding. 17 species. Not only was the butterflying mediocre, the restaurant is now closed on Tuesday also!

On a black eyed susan in my garden.

First time ever seeing a large swallowtail on our property. It loved our cone flowers!

Nectaring on Heliotrope

I first saw the red spotted purple butterfly around 1:30pm today and took several photos beginning at 2:01pm. It rested on my porch rocking chair for several minutes, then followed me back and forth between the front yard flower gardens and the porch as I weeded and divided plants. It was present for at least two hours, but was no longer there when I returned to the front yard at 5:00pm after working in the back for awhile. I didn't see it on any of my nectar plants as it seemed to prefer resting on my porch furniture and occasionally on the leaves of a mum that is not yet blooming and a lily that is already done blooming. It was often very still rather than flitting about from flower to flower.

Seen while recuperating from hip replacement surgery!

Good butterfly day! Calm, plenty of blooming plants, mostly sunny. Many Monarchs, a few others. First Black Swallowtail I've seen in my garden in years, but I do have dill planted this year.

5 pm

86 degrees and sunny but not nearly as many species and numbers as I have seen in this location in past years however I have never seen this many Giant Swallowtails in one day.

Two mating pairs of monarchs

July 12, 2017
11:00-1:00 (72 degrees) 50% cloud cover

Sunny, calm morning. I thought there would be more butterflies. The Fiery skipper was depositing eggs on the grassy path. Also saw a hummingbird clearwing moth.

Seen in our garden enjoying phlox.

Restored Prairie

Only a short time spent in the prairie flowers very early in the morning (before 9am)

It rained most of the day except for a stretch of sunshine late afternoon. The butterflies enjoyed the wet gravel. Several birds were bathing in some fairly large puddles.

We were surprised to see so many Monarchs on our early evening walk. We had heavy rain here all afternoon.

Sun came out after a rainy morning. Lots of butterfly activity.

Common Buckeye is a lifer for me! My first and only picture that I could get. Fast flyer!

Cloudy and 62 degrees.

Very busy with Monarchs this afternoon!

I suspect the white spot on the wing is a petal from the flowering spurge (Euphorbia corollata) that was blooming all over.

We also saw 2 skippers that we could not identify.

Sighting of several swallowtails in cone flower patch along yellow trail just below Wehr Nature Center.

We saw two Giant Swallowtail Butterflies. One of them had a piece of a wing missing.

Spotted on a red coneflower in my garden.

80° Mostly Sunny. 19 people attended the field trip on a very pleasant day to be butterflying.
Group photo around a Sleepy Orange.

This was one of two parties on the 11th annual Avoca NABA Count. We found 19 species. The best find was 3 Sachem. The other party was the SWBA Field Trip (see that report). Together the total for the Count was 34 species, our highest. Outstanding were Painted Ladies (17)! The commonest butterfly on the count was Monarch (37)! That's the 2nd highest density in 11 years!

These are sightings from Fitzsimmons Road at Bender Park.

We had 2 different Giant Swallowtails in our yard. They spent a long time going from flower to flower, mostly coneflowers, but changed to garden phlox later in the day.

Two Giant Swallowtails on Phlox flowers

The Giant Swallowtail was busy with the coneflowers. There was a lot of damage on the lower wing. We were so fortunate to have seen 5 Giant Swallowtails in a 2 day time span.

Also saw 2 other skippers that I couldn't ID

Sighted during a walk along the river

On new Butterfly bush

We didn't see many individuals for each of the butterfly species. However, the hummingbird clearwing moths were there in full force--I've never seen this many in one place before, pretty amazing.

Seen while working in my yard today.

At Shea Prairie, we stayed in the area near the parking lot. There were quite a few butterflies there. At Schurch Thomson, we explored the first part of the prairie, off the gravel road. We didn't have the time or energy to walk back to the part of the prairie where we've seen regal fritillaries in the past. Maybe another day soon.

First Giant Swallowtail sighting right on my deck

Papilio cresphontes loving the garden phlox in front of our house in town. Also observed three caterpillars on a potted meyer lemon tree august 27 2017

Seen while birding, before 11am.

82 degrees and sunny with clouds and a stiff breeze later in the day. All Swallowtails were nectaring on Joe Pye Weed which is not all that common anymore in the meadows. Some common butterflies completely missing and only 1 Skipper seen.

So many pollinators were out today. Saw at least 3 clearwing moths plus dozens of bumble bees, flower flies, wasps. Found a monarch caterpillar hanging from the milk house roof, went to check on it about an hour later and it was already a chrysalis. Saw an American dagger caterpillar and a huge cecropia caterpillar on Box Elder. Also saw a robber fly sp.

Beautiful White Admiral floating at the edge of a woods near my goat fields.

Primarily in the prairie area. Beautiful sunny day.
I also saw 2 monarchs mating.

14 species. Our first Fiery Skipper of the year.

I returned to the prairie for the 2nd time this week in hopes of seeing a Regal fritillary. Unfortunately, a work crew was on the ridge removing invasives, so I walked other parts of the prairie. I returned to the area after the crew left and was rewarded with a sighting of one Regal. I was too excited to get a clear picture.

I also found two Black Swallowtail caterpillars on Dill.

First time viewing of Giant Swallowtail for me!

Very warm and sunny. My tiny garden is teeming with pollinators, several Ruby-throated Hummingbirds, at least 3 species of bumblebees, honeybees, and various other bees, flies, and wasps I can't identify.

This is the way butterflying should be everyday! We also saw a skipper that I am nearly positive was a Black Dash but it seems late for one. I could not get a photo so did not include it in our list.

Late try for Purplish Fritillaries--same sits as July 22 (0 found) and 29 (3 found). A pair of bogs north of Moose Junction along Hwy 35, a bog on Foxboro-Chaffee Road west of Hwy 35, bogs south of Milchesky Road 1.9 and 1.15 miles west of County Hwy A, North Bear Creek and Bear Creek bogs along County Hwy A, and Lyman Lake Bog.

Found giant swallowtail in our gardens, feeding on Shasta daises, phlox and bee balm plants.

Tiger Swallowtail in and around the gardens in our yard.

Enjoyed watching the White Admiral and Milbert's Tortoiseshell sunning themselves on vehicles in the yard by our cabin.

Port Wing Boreal Forest west unit, and Bibon Lake, both west of Port Wing.

5 spots southwest of Solon Springs, 1 hour total. Leonard's Skippers have declined at all of our Douglas County survey sites, including the ones south of Brule.

72 degrees and cloudy

Mostly sunny, 74 degrees and breezy.

Cool morning so butterflying was slow but later when it warmed up I just did a count at the intersection of Abel and Main Dike Rd when I saw my FOY Leonard's Skipper flying back and forth on the gravel road.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail in and around gardens.

My first Bronze Copper and first time photo of a Giant Swallowtail

The female Black Swallowtail was photographed on Bull Thistle (Cirsium vulgare), and the Monarch was observed flying nearby

Giant Swallowtail checking out the Dictamnus in the backyard.

Sunny afternoon in my garden.

Mid 70's, sunny and almost perfect.

A good day for southern species! Most numbers are rough estimates. Cloudless Sulphur was very obvious, large and with no black, but didn't land for photos. Many small skippers, but at least one each of Fiery, Sachem, and Peck's

75 degrees, mostly sunny. Especially enjoyed the skippers, especially fiery and sachem.

1 unidentified large fritillary

We surveyed the rectangular grassland along Namakagon Trail 1/2 mile east of the Snake Trail, as well as an opening further north a little east of the Snake Trail (where we saw most of the Common Branded Skippers). The Snake Trail north of Namakagon Trail is closed to cars, so we walked a mile up the road to look for butterflies and found five Common Branded Skippers in the first 0.7 miles. In the north part of this walk we saw our only Milbert's Tortoiseshells of the year. In 2015 we also saw our only Milbert's of the year along that stretch of road. 21 of the Common Brandeds that we saw were male, 19 were female, and for 42 we couldn't tell.

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was the black form.

On red coneflower in my garden.

Giant Swallowtail feeding on phlox in my frontyard

Along trail thru meadow area

3 Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on a piece of driftwood!

Saw a few of these Painted Ladies that day on the beach.

Along with many other butterflies near the foundation of the old Toft family homestead.

My first Sachem (female) and Fiery Skipper (male) of the year.

76° Mostly Cloudy. Lots of flowers. 2 kinds of Blazing Star to a field of Coneflowers to Wild Senna & Turtlehead. 1 of viceroys was really small. 1/2-2/3 the normal size.

We released four Monarchs today that we raised from eggs.

Found on pathway that circles around Restored Prairie area.

Saw a Giant Swallowtail in our yard both yesterday and today. Didn't hang around long enough to get a better picture. Definitely the biggest butterfly I've ever seen.

Seen it while mowing lawn in my yard

Went to check if the Cecropia moth caterpillar was still in the Box elder. It was still there and close by was an American Dagger moth caterpillar and a monarch caterpillar on common milkweed growing nearby

remained on salmon color geranium for 5-10 min

A good year for Common Buckeyes.

I used to go to Northeast Iowa to see the Giant Swallowtail. Giant Swallowtails have been pretty common here this summer (first seemed to be arriving to this county around the year 2011)

These two were grazing side by side for 10 minutes or so on the west shore of Lulu Lake.

76° Partly Sunny. Was bummed about not getting to leave the farm to look for butterflies. Made the best of a bad(?) situation after 1:30pm. Might have to rethink my priorities. Most of the species were in a small patch of Joe Pye Weed in the marsh.

Big excitement today was finding 2 Common Checkered Skippers on County Rd O. The 2nd one was much darker than the first. Both Leonard's Skippers were patrolling on gravel roads and 2 of the ET Swallowtails were dark form females but no photos of them.

Steady feeding on phlox

My first American Snout in Wisconsin since 2007!

The female Sachem was on the same group of flowers nectaring as it was two days ago.

moving around variety of native/non-native blossoms

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Black form

Two Giant Swallowtails were flying about my flower garden, concentrating on the phlox flowers.

This Giant Swallowtail butterfly was in my driveway today and it was so beautiful .

The Giant Swallowtails are loving the Bee Balm and thistle flowers today!

Can always count on seeing Black Swallowtails at Badger Prairie. Also saw one of my favorite moths, a chickweed geometer.

I was so happy to see this Black Swallowtail sipping nectar from a red zinnia this afternoon!

78 degrees, a beautiful day to go in search of Giant Swallowtails. I was not disappointed. The 2 gravel roads I went on went from deep woods to farm fields.