Butterfly sightings for May 2018

A Mourning Cloak shows up about this time every spring in our garden. He must be getting quite old.

So nice to finally see butterflies!

Stanton Creek Road, Brockway Road, and a site near Hwy 54. 3.2 hours. The Henry's Elfin was 50 meters west of the empty pipeline that is west of Brockway Road and parallels that road, and 100 meters further south than the entrance to Wazee County Park. We saw one unidentified elfin.

2-5:00
I was expecting that I might find my first Brown Elfin or Hoary Elfin of the year. I found neither, but was amazed at how much I did find! I also saw my first Cow Path Tiger Beetle in Jackson County!

Many Grapevine Epimenis moths as well

75 degrees F and full sun. Breezy.

We also saw five other orange butterflies and a blue.

FOY Red Admiral in our yard, a couple weeks later than usual.

Also saw a small orange/brown butterfly that wouldn't stay still long enough for me to ID.

Monarch flying low through the prairie.
Landed momentarily then took off. Did not have my camera so did not get a photograph

First butterflies of the year in our yard

Seen while getting ready for Rex's birthday party

3:20 hours. We walked a 7 mile circuit that is the best area we know for finding Frosted Elfins in Jackson County, but identified no Frosted Elfins. We saw 4 unidentified elfins.

Also an FOY blue. I'm filing the sighting in order to document the appearance of 6 milkweeds, right on schedule compared to previous years.

Listening to spring peepers and my first Wood Thrush of the year while photographing my first Red Admiral of the year. Excellent!

Monarch flew over while watching terns.

Likely more, but this is just what I remember.

Hard to mistake a Red Admiral for anything else.

FOY Red Admiral and she was depositing eggs

A pleasant surprise to see a big Tiger sail through the garden this afternoon (heading north).

Saw just this one Olympia Marble in flight.

Great way to start the butterfly season--see a Henry's Elfin at two locations! Temperature in the lower 80s, breezy. Prairie buttercup, a few strawberries, one Juneberry shrub in bloom. Saw three unidentified "blues."

The Compton Tortoiseshell is one for my over-the-hill collection. Looked for the Scarce Infant that I have seen at this location three times but I had no luck today on this species. I also saw three of a day-flying moth, The Infant.

Seen while helping to put up Purple Martin houses. My first Red Admiral of the year.

My first Monarch of the year

Sunny, temp upper 70's

2 hours, 7 barrens sites. 60-65 degrees F, half sun. 3 sites were inside Sandhill WA, and 4 were adjacent to Hwy X.

Seen in a field.

Our friend has a private golf course with 11 miles of trails through his woods. The Eastern Pine Elfin was on one of the tee boxes near the edge of the woods. Time to put my macro lens on my camera.

77 degrees and sunny when I got there at 3:00 but clouded up by 4:00. These appeared to all be males patrolling for females as they never stopped except for a couple on the road to mineralize briefly.

Also a FOY visit by two Baltimore Orioles who were pecking the half-orange nailed to our deck railing.

77 degrees and sunny. The butterflies were not very cooperative today. 4 unidentified duskywings, 3 unidentified elfins, and no photo of the Chryxus Arctic

Search 2:40pm-3:55pm. Good to see Chryxus Arctic is still there.

Hoping to find a thriving Freija Fritillary population deep in the site interior, but zero despite excellent conditions. There are scattered historical records from the site, but I suspect they've gone downhill. Also no Red-disked Alpines, although it would have been the very early part of the flight period.

The weather was poor for butterfly finding half of the time. We saw at least 14 unidentified elfins. 4 Hoary Elfins were right by the Bauer-Brockway Barrens SNA sign north of Bauer Road, and about 5 Hoaries were in the right-of-way south of Bauer Road opposite that sign. All of the Henry's Elfins were west of Brockway Road and less than 0.6 miles south of Bauer Road. At least 6 Henry's Elfins were near each other approximately 200 meters southwest o the entrance to Wazee County park. The Frosted Elfins were more than 1/2 mile west of Hunter Haven Road.

Low 70's, sunny and simply a gorgeous day! Also had two sulphurs a Tiger Swallowtail and a few Tiger Beetles.

seen while planting oats

First Monarch of the season! Did not hang around for a Kodak Moment!

The highlight was a colony of Gorgone Checkerspots

80+ degrees and sunny. Also 3 unidentified duskywings

Landed on my shoulder and then flew to the tree

Upper 70's, all sightings before noon.

Flying north, of course. (Added the Black Swallowtail the next day when looking at photos of the lilacs and crabapples!)

82 degrees and sunny.

80's, breezy, and sunny.

Also saw a serval yellow butterflies and a crescent butterfly that flew through yard quickly, no time to ID

80 degrees and very breezy, so not much flying.

Working in the field throughout DNR Lulu Lake SNA property west of Nature Rd. Noticed a few small, dark, skipper-like butterflies. Was able to get a look through binoculars and take a few photos with my cell phone (which, admittedly, are not great).

My first American Lady of the year

72 degrees, bright sunshine, freshly graded trail, damp soil. 10:30 am. Many Eastern Pine Elfins along the trail, all fresh, seating perpendicular to sun rays.

First Monarch of the season. Flying over traffic, so no pic.

I have managed this wildflower production farm since 1995 and typically visit it weekly, during the growing season. "March-November"
Am wondering if the Gorgone's blue in from one of the recent storms that pushed down from the northwest. As in the past twenty-three years I have never seen this species on this site! Visiting Blue-eyed Grass "Sisyrinchium" & Wild Columbine "Aquilegia"

Fluttering about our neighbor's yard

seen while planting corn

60 °F and sunny.

8.2 hours; we walked >12 miles; 62-83 degrees F, mostly sunny; wind E to S, 0-12 mph. All sites that we visited are part of our Frosted Elfin monitoring program. Our total Frosted Elfin count on the 7-8 mile Hunter Haven loop was 39; this is our 3rd highest count out of 21 years of surveys there. Our top two counts from Hunter Haven are both from 2012. We also surveyed several sites west of Brockway Road and at "North Brockway East", Stanton Road, and the South Brockway ATV Trail and Motorcycle Trail Forest that are both just east of Brockway Road. We saw at least 35 unidentified elfins, and at least 150 unidentified duskywings.

Also saw my first Eastern Forktails of the year.

My first Meadow Fritillary of the year.

Southern Wis Butterfly Association. 80 degrees. 7 people, led by Douglas Buege. Sunny most of day - better than the forecast. 15 species. Limited flowers. Out of the 12 years for this field trip, this was the 3rd lowest year for Gorgone Checkerspot.

Haven't seen a Monarch butterfly yet this year, but did find 3 eggs on common milkweed.

along Resv Hwy 5 near the river and through the jack pine plantation

Eleventh annual Crex to the Barrens butterfly trek. Cool at the start, and very dry, but low numbers of butterflies were seen in the appropriate habitat. High point of the trip was seeing over 15 elfins congregating in a pairing-up spot on Clemens Fire Lane in the Barrens

Also saw a Sulphur butterfly but no id.

We also found eggs on our Common Milkweed plants which have just emerged.

Gorgone Checkerspots were still the primary species of interest. Both new and worn specimens were found

FOY monarch

Hot 82F, 5-10mph, mostly sunny

Temps in the 80's with a hot, south wind. An early thunderstorm provided a few puddles.

8:00 - 12:17 Lilacs blooming. Standing water in fields.

This Monarch oviposited on three different milkweeds; we collected 5 eggs before the ants could get them.

The Tiger and Cabbage whites were seen at Glenway golf course.

Flying around my milkweed garden from plant to plant!

Found in grass besides small prairie area.

Flew by while I was planting in our small garden. Hard to mistake for any other species.

Also saw a Six-spotted Tiger beetle

Near 80 degrees and breezy. There were 10 or more Tiger Swallowtails, but didn't get a close look at all of them. No adult Monarchs but I found several eggs on milkweed.

Sunny and 86 degrees with humidity. 71 monarch eggs found on only a few tiny milkweed plants.

Hot and humid, 10:30 am., on gravel and on my boot.

If memory serves me right I think this is the first of this species I've seen here at my house since moving here in 2009.

Our first-of-year Silver-spotted Skipper.

Mosquito were very thick!

I found two duskywings fluttering together and one of them landing on a Wild Columbine. I checked the plant later and found 3 eggs. When I brought the plant inside the next day - to rear them - one of the eggs had already hatched.

West Bend, Wi. residence back yard a Giant Swallowtail visiting Lilac Bush! about 10:30 Am. Earlier in the morning 7:30 Am a Pileated Woodpecker in the adjoining upland woods!

Both butterflies were near the creek. Observed during a Madison Audobon Society field trip. Also an Comma sp. or Question Mark

FOY Dusted Skipper. Chased three blues flitting about lupine plants, but couldn't get one to sit still for a positive ID. Still dry there.

Unnamed fire lane heading east from Dry Landing Road just 0.1 mile north of Clemens Creek. Perching activity near these large red pines. Not sure of the moth.

Tiger swallowtails were congregating on damp sand of Namekagon Trail where it goes through a bog. A hike in the bog disappointingly turned up not a single brown elfin; fresh examples were here a week ago.

Cottonwood seeds flying.

Lost Land Lake Rd.

FOY found on wolf scat on Main Dike Rd.

high 80's to low 90's, sunny, around 5 pm...only two butterflies seen.

Upper 80's, sunny & hot with a slight breeze.

Second day in a row seeing Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, first Monarch sighting of the season in my garden.

Giant Swallowtail was at wild raspberry bloom. True to form, it would not stop beating its wings while nectaring. Saw Common Ringlet yesterday and today on my five acres of old field vegetation. Sorry, no photo, but certain of ID.

Also a Eastern/Canadian Tiger Swallowtail

Flew across the road in front of my car, but I didn’t hit it!

Incidental sightings while pulling garlic mustard. Sunny and about 75 degrees at 10am.