Butterfly sightings for September 2017

With night temps in the low 40s and day temps in the 60s I wasn't expecting much today. Most sightings are from County Rd O, the dustiest road in the county.

overcast, 66 F, SW wind 8 - 9 mph. 1.3 miles along the Capitol City Trail from 13:35 - 14:32. the birds were not very active, either.

One of the Eastern Tigers was a dark form female

Around 2:00pm, mid-80s, sunny.

3 to 4 PM, Sunny and warm. 2 of the Monarchs were mating.

12:53 - 14:10, 0.9 miles, sunny, variable wind 6 - 7 mph. All the blues were clustered in about 15' along the path.

I did a three and a half hour survey for the Northern Barrens and Ghost Beetles. I was about ready to give up when I finally found three Northern Barrens in a fifty yard stretch. I also found the Oblique Lined Tiger Beetles in a new area that is about 400 yards from the previous area. Still no Ghost but I did find a Grasshopper with bright red mites on it.

Found this guy stuck between my screen door and sliding glass door.

I did a survey for the Northern Barrens Tiger Beetle and found 24 of them. It is a new personal one day record for me.

This newly-eclosed male was nectaring in our garden yesterday when a presumably naive bird clipped off his wingtips in an attack. We brought him back in to our screenporch overnight and let him solarize on a screen for the morning hours, but this afternoon he was unable to sustain flight.

We have probably all seen elderly butterflies with greater % wing loss from wear and tear be able to fly reasonably well, but there may be some crucial mechanical disadvantage to losing the wingtips.

Looking for migrating birds, It was a bit early in the day (about 7:30 am) and cool for many butterflies.

First real push of migrating Monarchs along Lake Michigan. Cool temps around 60 degrees and very scattered showers didn't seem to bother them as I watched five flyby in the rain. This was the highest number of Painted Ladies I have seen in a decade.

Sunshine on and off. Cool to cold when the sun decided to hide behind the clouds. Butterfly warm when the sun was shining.

The Monarchs that I saw yesterday apparently have moved south. Cool in the high 50s, partly sunny. All three Peck's Skippers were seen nectaring on low flowering dandelions in the grass.

Overcast skies, temp of 65 degrees. Photo attempt failed. Smartphone was not on and set for camera in time to capture image before flight path was lost.

Cool over night, reviving on east side of our house.

Cloudy and 63 degrees. I also saw a very large black and white hornet nest that was built close to the ground in a clump of bushes.

Cloudy and 63 degrees.

Full sun, 68 degrees, long stay on lake path carpet.

Sunny and 68 degrees.

Spotted two Monarchs this afternoon in my wildflower patch.

65° Sunny. Giant Swallowtail Cat.s are about ready to go into chrysalis.

Full sun, 60s. On gooseneck flowers

Beautiful day for butterflying although a little breezy. Painted Ladies were everywhere so I just estimated numbers.

Quite a split between very battered and fresh specimens.

Monarch larval form in Monarch Way Station in my backyard on August 28/2017

Sunny, 82°, slight breeze landing on Joe Pye Weed by porch.

A beautiful day on the prairie. I've been finding 1/2" tiger swallowtail caterpillars on ash leaves lately.

Most Painted Ladies were on County Rd O. I would see groups of 10-15 at a time fly up from damp spots in the gravel on the side of the road as I drove by.
This is a new late date for the Karner Blue. MR

Nectaring vigorously on my garden's Hydrangea paniculata shrubs and Eutrochium /Joe Pye weed by open fields surrounded by mature northern hardwood forest, this beat up Papilio cresphontes appeared Sept. 12, 2017. Located about a half mile from Lake Superior. What a thrill!
This represents the northernmost sighting of this species in WI. MR

Many butterflies out today enjoying the warm sunshine and sipping nectar from the flowers.

Full sun, 70s, feeding on zinnias.

83°, no breeze, on red Salvia by porch. This Giant Swallowtail has been hanging around. It has a tear in left tail and a hole in the right wing, but can still fly.

Feeding on goldenrod.

Seen briefly while nectaring on garden flowers, mostly Phlox and New England Aster.

Purple coneflowers and pink dianthus have been attracting butterflies, moths, and many bees in our front yard. Bumblebees and Painted Lady butterflies would briefly share the same flower.

I was only there for about an hour (11:30a-12:30p), but managed to see lots of Monarchs. Interesting to see that they were nectaring on various types of plants. I wonder how many were around in other parts of the park which I didn't have time to visit.

85° Sunny. None in the woods today. Giant went into Chrysalis 2 days ago. Almost all the butterflies seen today were on the zinnias.

There were a bunch of them! Was only able to get a couple at a time on camera.

Really enjoying purple asters!

Temps in low 80's, breezy from the south. One Eastern Tiger was so faded it was white instead of yellow, another was a dark form, fresh. Also saw a Skiff moth caterpillar on White Oak

Cool, breezy, beautiful day.

Yesterday there were 4 Painted Ladies in our coneflowers and sedum, and today 18.

I observed 1 Black Swallowtail resting on a weedy plant in my hayfield/semi-prairie acreage. It was gently flapping its wings in the sunshine. I have seen a few others this year.
Dozens of Painted Lady & numerous Monarch nectaring on clover, dandelions & Autumn Glow Sedum. This has occurred 3x in the past 2 weeks.

Around 2:30, after a doctor's appointment on the west side of Madison, I decided to stop by these two gardens on the chance I'd see a few butterflies. I was well rewarded. 30+ Painted Ladies, 20+ at the first (smaller) garden. They were evertwhere and nectaring on everything in sight, including cosmos. At one point, I could see 10 right in front of me. This was the most Painted Ladies I've ever seen at one time. Added bonus: I got to see 3 hummingbirds,, none of which stayed in one place long enough for a photo.

By looking throughout Olbrich we found many beautiful Painted Ladies who are presumably moving back South now.

Hundreds of Painted Ladies in the fields and woods! I wish I had a better camera with me!

The butterflies were mostly attracted to a patch of dark purple Salvia and nearby Zinnias.

The Cloudless Sulphur was seen in Herbster. This is the northern most record in WI!
Just the tip of the iceberg so to speak with the Painted Ladies. Every yard with flowers from Washburn to Port Wing had at least a dozen.

First Fiery Skipper here this year.

The Monarchs were mainly nectaring on New England Asters.

In my backyard foraging on White Snakeroot (Ageratina altissima)

Butterflies were enjoying all my flowers today, holding on tight in the strong winds. Painted Lady and Silver-spotted Skipper butterflies shared the blooms on my sedum with a Great Black Wasp and many bees.

Watched three male Fiery Skippers battling repeatedly.

The Fiery Skippers were both males.

This count was for a very small area within the botanical garden. It was a good butterfly day! Temps in the low 80s, light wind, plenty of nectar sources.

Hot, humid. Painted Ladies swarming the sedum, 7 in one flower bed. Comma landed on me then hung out on cement slab.

83 degrees and sunny. The Painted Ladies were seen nectaring exclusively on Red Clover and the Monarchs were seen nectaring on both Red Clover and New England Asters.

10:30-12:30. Cloudy and somewhat foggy at the start. I saw some sun as I was leaving. This was a very conservative count of the Painted Ladies.

About 20-30 Painted Ladies nectaring in field. Thistle flowers are popular today.

84° Sunny Doreen and I walked around the barn late in the afternoon.

Also had a sulfur but no id.

Just planted a Celosia plant in my garden this morning, and a few hours later there was a Silver-spotted Skipper going from one flower spike to an other. Very hot (92 degrees) and humid today.

Mostly on zinnias.

Sunny, temperature was upper 80's to 90. Dry conditions and limited nectar sources.

90s and humid. Very active.

We discovered the Brice Prairie nature center on a road trip. We found butterflies in the southern section where the goldenrod was in bloom.

High temp 90.4 today.

90 degree temps.

Seen flying on the beach during WSO's Jaegerfest field trip. Rescued out of Lake Superior and was able to fly away after it dried off. Wings very worn.

I don't think I've ever seen this many Painted Ladies together on one spot!

Around 2:00pm. Upper 90s. Behind the Visitor Center there's a slope down to the Mississipi River, not a very big area, but there were enough nectar sources to attracts some butterflies.

The nectar favorite is Mexican Sunflower (Tithonia).

Jaegerfest sighting

freshly emerged Monarch.

Too many Painted Ladies to count. All of them were on the sedum, coneflowers and zinnias.

The Painted Ladies have migrated throughout Wisconsin in bunches from the west and were nectaring on whatever they could find including Butter and Eggs, Burdock, and Spotted Knapweed. The Dainty Sulphur was the first in Wisconsin this year.

Still very warm and humid

I had stopped here two weeks earlier and noticed that there were plenty of nectar sources.

Low eighties, sunny, and windy

Already hot and windy at 10am. Not as many nectar sources up top as I'd hoped. In fact, all the butterflies I did see along the ridge were concentrated on a single 20 foot stretch of blooming aster. Except the monarchs; they were migrating.

95 degrees, full sun.

Another 90 degree day as the Monarchs and bees competed for nectar from my Mexican sunflowers.

Still warm and humid

Still warm and humid, weather might change tonight

68 degrees and mostly cloudly.

66 degrees and cloudy.

Everyone on asters today, but earlier this week the Mexican Sunflower was a butterfly magnet.

70 degrees and sunny.

62 degrees and sunny.

70F and Sunny, 5-10mph

A little urban butterflying today. Three of the Painted Ladies and the two Monarchs were nectaring on some aster plants for sale outside of Shopko. They found the 3 or 4 aster plants tucked in a corner among a sea of chrysanthemums, which they ignored. The other two Painted Ladies were on some aster bushes outside of Odana Antiques. And the Cabbage White was just flying across the road at a busy intersection.

64 degrees, partly sunny and very windy.

have seen in zinnias the past week

Enjoying my front yard perennial garden

butterflies sighted while birding today in the park.

This past week two different friends in Cass County northern Minnesota emailed me photos asking Whats Going On Here? They had 20+ and 70+ Painted Ladies in their small residential flower gardens.

On flowers by porch, warm day, 70, sunny. Light breeze

On a coreopsis

Was pleasantly surprised to see a Common Buckeye!

Visited the gardens I visited about a week and a half ago to see if the painted ladies were still around. They were, big time. Nice to see more monarchs and fiery skippers too. The added bonus today was seeing a wild turkey and her two chicks come out of a wooded area, then walk across a very large paved parking lot to get to a grassy area on the other side.

Stopped at the Monarch Way Station and the adjacent flower bed. Only one monarch, and smaller numbers of the other butterflies.