Butterfly sightings for August 2018

Had a visit from a big Swallowtail in my Butterfly friendly back yard.

Giant Swallowtail visiting my Joe Pye Weed.

Only a 40-minute hike, but a rather disappointing count for a warm sunny August day. On the home front we have what looks like a miniature Monarch in the works. The two chrysalises on the right in the photo are the same distance from the camera, but the left one is less than half the volume of the right one. The cat was also tiny and formed a tiny J. Otherwise looks normal re color and configuration.

In my garden on a coneflower.

Cloudy, breezy 10mph front just went through 68F. Started at 4:30 and spent about an hour walking the site.

Sunny breezy warm day. Also saw lots of bees and dragonflies.

Spotted in our backyard. Close to lake nagawicka and flying around pine trees.

Started out partly sunny, 78F, about 30mins it started to sprinkle, was lots of activity but enough rain to shut it down, but then activity picked up again for awhile until it rained very hard.

I was leaving my house for work this morning (5:30am) and a fresh, new Red-spotted Purple was sitting on my screen door. I went back into the house grabbed my camera and took a bunch of photos. I got it on my finger and put it on the flowers. It was gone when I got home. Picture is from my phone, off the screen of the camera.

Seen while outside on lunch break

First Giant Swallowtail I've seen this far north.

Found on Thicket Creeper in woodland edge...

All in our prairie and flower beds.

Just stopped off while visiting the library for a new book. Had only my cell phone for a camera.

Seen visiting my Joe Pye Weed flowers.

Sitting on my porch and this butterfly flew around our large cedar tree as if searching for a place to land. Then it did and is still here hanging from the tree and it blends in extremely well. We live in the older part of the city where there are many mature trees and landscapes.

Monarchs mostly on Showy Blazing-Star (Liatris ligulistylis) in this prairie restoration.

Two butterfly bushes were planted this year in front of our building. Monarchs have visited several times this summer. I have also seen them on the purple coneflowers by the boys and girls club on 6th and Galena as well as the Wisconsin visitor center on 6th and Wisconsin Ave.

I was on my way to work this afternoon when I saw this butterfly on the side walk near Knapp Street and Prospect here in Milwaukee on the east side.

Watched 2 Monarchs mating, but could not get a camera shot due to location

They were in my garden at: Mexican Sunflower, Mexican Milkweed, Zinnias, Common Milkweed, Canna Lilies and Cosmos

Was monitoring the rain gardens in the parking lot at Urban Ecology Center, Riverside for like 30 minutes.

Spotted 1 Hummingbird Moth on Wild Bergamot

Took a quick hike through the prairie area. Blooms are beautiful right now. Liatris, Rattlesnake Master, and Swamp Milkweed popular with the butterflies. Silphiums are blooming, too.

In a restoration prairie

77 degrees, sunny, lots of wildflowers in the meadows. After seeing my first Giant Swallowtail of the year, I saw two more. One of the "punctuation" butterflies flew past, but I was unable to tell whether it was a Comma or a Question Mark. Also several clear wing moths, Hummingbird and Snowberry.

In my yard. The Tigers did not stay long. The Monarchs seems to stay all day long svinging themselves between the plants, sometimes playing with each other. Same goes with the Cabbage Whites.

They love my purple coneflowers.

Incidental while gardening on a cool, foggy morning

Warm, partly sunny, late afternoon, and 79 degrees

No camera or phone today, everything in twos: Monarchs on Milkweed flowers. Late instar (5th, I think, but still eating) Monarch cats on Milkweed plants. Giant Swallowtails and Tiger Swallowtails in Knapweed patch.

All the White Admirals were very fresh.

Monarch seen on Red Milkweed in my native gardens. Very busy monarch year - much stronger population than previous years. Seems to be a good year.

On leaves of an apple tree

Two hours (8 - 10 a.m.) on same day as the SWBA Lower Wisconsin Riverway field trip. Only we looked on north side of Wisconsin River. 13 species.

This is the 19th sighting of this species in Wisconsin where it was first found in 2002. (Mike Reese)

All photos by Lester Doyle except for Giant Swallowtail on Swamp Milkweed by Mike Reese

At least 30 large fritillaries but only saw 12 sitting and close enough for certain ID. Most monarchs on Showy Blazing-Star (Liatris ligulistylis). Hummingbird Moth (Hemaris thysbe) nectaring at a Lesser Purple Fringed Orchid (Platanthera psycodes).

I spent the morning in my own backyard reading. Every once in a while, I looked up as my eye was attracted to movement, and there was another great butterfly. The most amazing sighting: a new female Monarch whose wings were still wet and had just emerged from a chrysalis that I had not noticed although it was in a flower pot full of orange milkweed and zinnias. I have got to pay more attention. Also saw a Snowberry Clearwing and a Hummingbird moth.

There are acres of whorled milkweed in bloom. We only observed from the road since it is private property, but it seemed to be a butterfly heaven. These are conservative numbers.

A great butterfly day!

Spotted only the one in a prairie on the East end of Kinnickinnic State Park's Red Trail near a number (at least 4) of Monarchs following a rainstorm in mid to late afternoon.

Feeding from our Zinnias.

Very good species count. Combined bird watching and biking, but the butterflies turned out the most successful. Started the day with the Giant Swallowtail

In our Cup plant

Red Admiral feeding on grape jelly

Warm, humid 85 degree day with a breeze. Found resting under our garage gutter and then inside our garage.

Observed several minutes around 9:00 a.m. feeding on bee balm. They then landed and sat still. I then realized these were butterflies, not large hummingbirds.

Black swallowtail drying her wings just after emerging from chrysalis.

I walked along the river between the boat launch on the west and the foot bridge on the east. Nice Osprey flyover.

Got home from a butterfly walk and .... more butterflies.

In my garden

very hot and sunny. Went out to test my new little point and shoot camera, a Panosonic Lumix. I was very happy with its performance.

Best unguided butterfly walk ever for us. Had never seen more than one Viceroy at a time. We needed to watch our step on certain parts of the trail so as to not walk on the numerous crescents.

Incidental while in our backyard

Observation at home backyard birdfeeder - 3:20pm.

Individual on Joe Pye weed in moist meadow at the northwest corner of Beaver Dam Lake

Hummingbird Clearwing (Hemaris thysbe) nectaring at Bergamot (Monarda fistulosa)

this is a pic I found going through my old photos

This was in my backyard, around 11:30 AM just as I finished watering my lawn. I have seen very few monarchs in the last two days, compared to the two previous days. Yesterday, there was an abundance of black wasps.

Several feeding on the underbrush along the woods trails

Came up to me sitting on my porch.

My husband spotted it on a liatris in our garden

Had landed on our gas plant in one of our flower gardens

In early afternoon I hiked the trail around the northern portion of the Lipinski Kitze Prairie at Madison Audubon's Goose Pond Sanctuary. I saw many Monarchs, especially where the Meadow Blazing Star (Liatris ligulistyis) is beginning to bloom.

Observation at 140th Ave & 200th St - 6:40pm

It was a good butterfly day. I saw others, but they didn't get close enough for me to ID them. Saw male and female Monarch adults. Many Monarch caterpillars and eggs on the milkweed, too.

Near 80 degrees, mostly cloudy and humid. All between 12 and 1pm.

Second year that I've had this species in my yard.

walked to walt lake, plenty of deer flies

Chambers Island Bio Blitz
Covered a large area of the island on bike. Main areas by the dock, air strip and dunes/beach, base line rd, sandy point.
70F, overcast still see shadow, light breeze

75 degrees, calm, muggy, densely overcast with light drizzle. There's a seasonal lull in native flowers until goldenrod comes in fully so knapweed is quite popular now. Also seen: several unidentified satyrs flying low and fast. One White-lined Sphinx. One large Monarch caterpillar and lots of evidence of others. Last photo - Prickly Ash with red berries.

The best "find" of the day was a sphinx moth. I thought it was a hummingbird but when it came around the monarda into view it was a sphinx with a large red area on the bottom of the thorax. I was so shocked, that I went on observing and forgot to take the picture

Mostly sunny. Up to 82 degrees. Fair number of individuals. 19 species. Nice to see some Orange Sulphurs. And nice to see Buckeye, Gray Hairstreak and Snout.

The host plant, willow trees, are abundant in the park.

Just saw a black Swallowtail on my jelly oriole feeder! It's been around for about 1/2 hr now - keeps coming back. Breathtaking!

Also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing and a Ruby-throated Hummingbird nectaring on Salvia.

In the field (north) across the road from the public parking.

Went to Milwaukee to watch the
Brewers and checked out the Sculpture Gardens for a couple hours. The gardens had a high concentration of butterflies

Had other commitments in West Bend Area this past weekend but had been planning a trip here for Cardinal flowers and other wildflowers. Spent most of our time along gravel lane up to the overflow crossing (where we saw most of these butterflies) then did a short loop through the prairie area. Least skippers almost everywhere - stopped IDing and counting at 25 but we saw at the very least 50 small orange skippers.

Two Monarch caterpillars on A. tuberosa

Giant Swallowtail.

Again on August 15. Hovered around some garden phlox for an extended period of time.

75 degrees and sunny. Concentrated on the west side which has been designated a butterfly sanctuary. One of the Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female. Also saw Snowberry Clearwing moth and a Ctenucha virginica.

My last stop for the day. Hot, humid and breezy.

A sedge meadow on the Oak Leaf bike trail.

The pair of White-lined Sphinx moths were almost as big as the hummingbird nearby. The moths kept busy in the Bee Balm.

After yesterday's outing at Avoca where many Least Skippers seen, we expected more than 1 here. 4 alive Peck's Skippers and 2 "ambushed" by appropriately named ambush bugs (Phymata spp.) (mating pair of ambush bugs with female holding the skipper). All on blazing stars. Far more ambush bugs this year than I ever remember seeing!

Still lots of nectar sources although the milkweed is gone. The Monarch count is down from the 175 that I had on July 24 when I had 14 mated pairs. Today we had only four mated pairs.

The guy with the big chopper on his tractor came to mow down the trees as I was surveying.

80 degrees, hot, humid, sunny. One of the Tigers was a black female.

Temps in the mid 80's by 1pm. That's quitting time, for me. Still, a Buckeye and an Am Snout in the same day, is a good day! Recent showers provided good puddling action.

A late morning walk around Cherokee Marsh, beginning in drizzle and ending in steamy sunlight.

8:10 AM sunny, approx 72*F
1:10 and 1:20 PM, overcast approx 74*F

Between 11:10am and 12:10pm I hiked the paved trail north of Priem Road. The Common Buckeye was extremely tattered, but still flying.

Up to 85 degrees and sunny. 21 species. Also heard 4 cicadas: Lyric, Floodplain, Linne's and Scissorsgrinder.

warm and sunny, rather hot day, clear skies

E. Tailed Blues have emerged at this location, which made the ID's with the Karner's very difficult. But no Spring Azures.

The Question Mark is tasting the moth bait.

The drier of the two parking areas, this area was suffering from lack of water on the north, prairie side

I had a pair of Giant Swallowtails in my meadow for the last 3 days.

I had to run over to the temporary Village Hall for Whitefish Bay today and discovered a wonderful rain garden/butterfly garden there. Wow! We need more of these.

All seen in our yard and prairie

Black swallowtail caterpillar feeding on celery plant. In 2017, there were five caterpillars feeding on parsley plant. There have been a pair of monarchs visiting zinnias as well throughout the summer.

Flitting from low grassy edge to maple/birch/oak forest.

3 monarchs were doing a happy dance together over and around the garden about 1:30pm. One was especially enjoying the liatris.

Blazing Star and Bergamot in full bloom along Brinks (231) Rd. in Bayfield County.

Looking out the kitchen window, I saw this butterfly landing on the flowers in the flower box. I grabbed my cell phone and took the picture. I am not in any way a butterfly person but I happened to show it to a friend who turns out is an avid butterfly person and he was so thrilled to see this that I decided to share it with others.

Five of our Monarchs eclosed and flew away today, including the one that emerged from the very small chrysalis I photographed on August 1. She was indeed a tiny butterfly (shown in the photo below a more conventional-sized female on the screen above her). Probably just normal species variability, because other than small size she appeared morphologically normal and looked healthy and flew vigorously. Interesting.

I found another nice butterfly garden in Whitefish Bay. It is at Cahill Square Park. There is a separate rain garden that is permanently wet enough for cattails to grow which was also attracting interesting insects. I watched a female Monarch lay an egg on Milkweed in the butterfly garden.

The Red-Spotted Purple was somewhat faded and had a torn wing, but it was still flying well.

Near marshland. Sighted in morning.

The Question Mark was depositing eggs on stinging nettle. Found a chain of 3 eggs. A couple pairs of mating monarchs seen. Also saw a recently emerged Ruby Tiger moth and an American Dagger caterpillar

Sunny, warm, and humid.

Also saw a hummingbird moth feeding on butterfly bushes

I've been leading a "Butterflies and Dragonflies for Beginners" walk at the north end of the Cedarburg Bog for the Friends of the Cedarburg Bog for about 5 years. This was the best day for butterflies I've ever had for the event.

87 degrees, sunny day.

Black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtails and Giant Swallowtails are both rare here.

The photo of the spider with the bumble bee prey was taken 1 minute and 31 seconds before the other when it was all wrapped! The compilation of the Hummingbird Clearwing shows how it uses its proboscis to get to the nectar.

Hackberry trees and woodland present. Seen feeding on 'Pink Diamond' hydrangea. Six seen, nectaring w Monarchs and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails.

We saw three species today along the East River.

Up to 85 degrees and sunny. 16 species. The Eastern Tailed-Blues were puddling. We heard Bell's Vireo and two cicadas: Lyric Cicada and the Dusk-singing Cicada.

Observed while removing Japanese beetles from raspberry patch.
This past week I enjoyed observing two White-lined Sphinx moths, which I hadn't seen in my garden for a few years.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail - in the community gardens on the east side of Madison flying around Zinias

The horse fly was on my car when I returned. Surprising number of Appalachian Browns on this late date.

Temps near 90. The blooming Joe-pye-weed is very popular!

Stopped by the Monarch Way Station and adjacent flower garden at McKee Park for awhile after lunch. Nice to see some skippers today. Also good to see Mexican sun flowers, a monarch magnet this time of year.

Working today removing invasive Burdock, I was amazed by the quantity of Silver-spotted Skippers feeding on the nearby Monarda.

Two tiny butterflies were enjoying my fountain and flowers. Even though I was watering plants, they hung around for 20 minutes or so.

There were far fewer Giant Swallowtails than last year at this time.

seen while looking for robber flies

Butterfly was crossing expressway on to a forested area heading east.

Short visit around noon. More dragonflies than butterflies.

This was the first time I've seen a red spotted purple admiral in this area & I am out quite a bit with my camera. It lingered for quite awhile & I used a long lens to not disturb it. It was alone on a thistle & appeared healthy & fairly unflappable despite nearby bees. What a treat.

Was in flight... easily could have missed.

FOY Leonard's Skipper! (Just one.) I've been watching the blazing star for them.

There were two of these I've seen over the past few days but they were further into the woods and could not get close enough. Today they were on the trail and the one let me get close enough for a picture.

I just looked at the gardens along the trail today. Despite lots of nectar sources and sun there were few butterflies today. Of course, I was distracted by the clearwings and the White-lined Sphinx. The black form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was completely missing one hindwing but was flying well.

Butterfly garden at my home has become honeymoon destination for many Monarchs!

Spent most of the time in the upper meadows near the building. One of the Tiger Swallowtails was a black form female. Carolina Grasshoppers are continuing to drive me crazy with their butterfly resemblance in flight.