Butterfly sightings for April 2021

Sunny and windy.

Junction of Stage Road and Mountain Road at east edge of Bell Twp. We also saw 1 of the day-flying moth Scarce Infant (Leucobrephos brephoides, black and white colored).

I noticed one Mourning Cloak in the back yard, and then I saw another one later, floating on a breeze in my neighbor's front yard. Very light breeze; temperatures in the 60s, with a high of 70.

Saw this tattered butterfly flitting about on the trail near the tennis courts.

I chased it for about 2 hours. I’m trying to maybe raise caterpillars of this species this year. It eventually disappeared. I’m pretty sure it was a male based on habits and size. I have never seen this species this south before!

FOY!

60s; Bloodroot in bloom.

First butterfly of the year.

Sunny, 60s, slight breeze

A Mourning Cloak was floating around my front yard on 4/3. I saw it again, or another one, in my backyard on 4/4.

Calm, full sun, 60s light breeze. On moss at base of birch. Cell phone shot, sorry.

I am not sure whether I saw two or just one very active butterfly.

Northern end of Klemik Road.

We walked northeast from County Hwy C for the first mile of Forest Road 256. We identified two kinds of day-flying moths: 12 Infants (Archiearis infans, orange, black, and white colored) and 4 Scarce Infants (Leucobrephos brephoides (black and white colored)

Went for another round at Whitnall Park. Beautiful Easter Day around 70 degrees. Didn’t see a tortoiseshell but a beautiful comma.

Happy Easter everyone!

The gravel part of Forest Road 262 (The Lenawee Trail) from 3 miles south of Herbster to its junction with Forest Road 236. We found Lepidoptera every time we stopped, but the junction with FR 683 had the most individuals. Moths: we saw 25 Infants and 13 Scarce Infants.

Most of the Mourning Cloak butterflies I saw were flying in pairs. One pair landed on the trunk of a nearby tree as seen in these photos. If I hadn't noticed them land there, I never would have known, as they were very well camouflaged. 75 degrees and breezy.

South end of Old County Hwy C, near North Boundary Road. Moths seen: 3 Infants

Beautiful day, about 60, with no wind and sunny, take care and enjoy Easter everyone

Five Mourning Cloaks were seen on Fish Lake SWA on damp sand/mud of Hickorson, Jimmy Carter, and Stolte Roads. The Eastern Comma was on the unnamed east-west road between Hickorson and Jimmy Carter Road. A single Mourning Cloak was seen near the northern end of Curry Road in Crex Meadows SWA. Air temp was a delightful 75 degrees. Butterflying resumes! Also common on damp mud was a native bee, I believe a species of Colletes.

Beautiful sunny afternoon.

Surprised to see my first Cabbage White!

Saw all five together as a group flying around bushes and road. Only one perched long enough for a photo.

saw 3 on my morning hike in a wooded ravine

FOY in sunny spots in the woods on leaf litter

flying over & landing in backyard prairie burn; overcast & warm

Along somewhat shaded sections of dirt-and-gravel roads through the Chippewa County Forest. Most seen while driving. Widely scattered. No photos.

The dirt/gravel roads at Necedah are dry and I saw no butterflies on the road where I normally would see them this time of year. Three of the Mourning Cloak were nectaring on one small willow. I saw and sniffed my first Trailing Arbutus of the year. My first tiger beetles of the year also was my first two-fer, since it was a male Festive Tiger Beetle attempting to mate with a Bronzed Tiger Beetle.

82 degrees and windy. I stopped at my favorite butterfly spot at the intersection of County Rd O and Southwest Dike Trail where I found the Compton and 1 Mourning Cloak. Other Mourning Cloaks seen as I drove other areas.

With all the recent sightings I decided to check it out.
MAN! I have never seen these early spring fliers in such numbers before! They were very friendly and flew right up to me. A fantastic sunny 74 degree afternoon.

Warm temps in the 70s.

North end of Old County Hwy C. Moths seen: 3 Infants, 1 Scarce Infant.

Stage Road. Most butterflies were at the junction with Mountain Road, but 3 Mourning Cloaks and 1 Compton TS were further northwest than that.

Spectacular day, about 70 degrees, with a backdrop of wood frogs and peepers.

13:15 First butterfly I have seen in Madison this year

Around 12:30, very sunny, mid-70's. Excited to see these butterfly visitors and very pleased to see another brilliant Spring beauty, the Sarcoscypha coccinea, also known as the Scarlet Cup Fungus or my favorite name the Scarlet Elf Cup. Although very tiny (3-5 cm) it is very recognizable.

13:20 This individual was whiter than yesterday's Cabbage White and in a garden

First butterfly of the year!

Nectaring on pussy willow.

8 Festive Tiger Beetles and 1 Oblique Lined Tiger Beetle. Providing two pictures of Festive to show the normal pattern variation

Tod also saw our first dragonflies of the year- a mating pair of green darners.

Flying across front yard.

Never seen so many of these semi rare butterflies in one spot. When I walked into the forest, I couldn’t believe how many I could spot. About 77 degrees.

Sunning in sandbar willows

Been a while since I have seen a Gray Comma Also saw 16 of the 12 Spotted Tiger Beetles.

70's and sunny.

there are at least two of these and twice now one has flown all around us and landed on my husbands head

Spring Azure was seen on blooming Bloodroot.

I was out in search of bumblebee queens today and this skipper caught my eye immediately. This is the first time this skipper has been seen on Moely Prairie and definitely our first butterfly sighting of the year. It was sunny and about 68 degrees. She was particularly drawn to the new-blooming Prairie Smoke.
[In the last four years only 12 Common Checkered-Skippers have been reported to this website. This is an early date for this species with the previous early record being May 16, 2012! MCR]

Mid 60's . Partly sunny

First tortoiseshell in ozaukee. I found a female and male. Camouflage was amazing. About 63 degrees and sunny.
Sorry for the bad photo. It was sitting with the mourning cloaks.

11 am: rather chilly and windy and overcast, but lots of non-native flowers blooming and attracting clouds of Cabbage Whites.

One Cabbage White at the UW Arboretum. More significantly, the first spike of milkweed in our home garden, about on schedule compared to previous years.

Sunny. Mid 50's.

Temp low 50s, sunny, slight breeze.

Mustard Whites are here is large numbers and are dispersed so I can't say how many total. I counted 35 at one time on our driveway. Most likely many more than the number I posted.

The Olympia was in a place we've never looked for them before, flying along both sides of Lake View road 150-300 meters west of the township boat ramp on the NW side of the lake. We then did a half-mile transect survey at one of our nearby spots and found no butterflies.

No too many butterflies today, but lots of birds including red-bellied woodpeckers, cardinals, red-winged blackbirds, ducks, robins, and a soaring turkey vulture. Sunny, breezy 60 degree afternoon.

Unidentified comma flew by

Butterflies mostly disappeared after an hour. A relatively cool afternoon. Around 53 degrees and sunny. No tortoiseshells today.

Can anyone answer this for me? 2 weeks ago I found the 50+ Mourning Cloaks all one area. Where did they all go? I didn’t think they could migrate. Also, I didn’t see any pairs. Now, most seem to be gone.

i was walking through forest when I saw it.

Sunny, about 60 degrees. Not a lot of butterfly activity. Few tiger beetles seen. Observation time: 12:00 - 16:00.

Sunny 57 degrees

Upper 50s cloudy windy

Lots of wildflowers in bloom, too!

6 hours. Sites were both east and west of Brockway Road, along the first 3/4 mile of Bauer Road west of Brockway, near Hwy 54, west of Hunter Haven Road, and along Stanton Creek Road. We also saw 4 unidentified elfins, and 4 flying butterflies that could all have been Juvenal's or Dreamy Duskywings: 3 dark spreadwing skippers and 1 duskywing sp.

10 to noon, 51 to 61 degrees.

Partly sunny,high 50,s

Full sun, warm. Feeding on the native ephemerals.

Mustard white was feeding on Spring Beauty flowers.

Excited to find two of these beauties in the grass

Breezy, sunny, 58 degree afternoon. First sightings of Cabbage White butterflies this year. Also saw two sandhill cranes near the trail and several American White Pelicans feeding in the river.

Finally, my first Mourning Cloak

Approximately 18 miles hiked over 13 hours. Temperature was 26 degrees to start and warmed to 61 degrees. Moderate winds from southwest.

Kudos to the director and staff at the Arboretum for their ongoing aggressive removal of trees and underbrush from this site. There will be a ton more nectar plants this summer and in the years to come.

This little one came to visit today.

We walked about 2 miles to survey Portage County parts of the wildlife area for birds. 1 unidentified white in same plot as the identified Mustard White.

Surveyed 3 elfin long-term monitoring units totaling 0.85 transect miles (1 Olympia Marble) and drove the Trumpeter Trail (1 Olymnpia, 1 Mourning Cloak).

All Mustard Whites were in the west right-of-way of Lundberg Road immediately south (6 individuals ) or north (1) of its junction with Tenpas Road, just across the road from the wildlife area.

We walked four elfin and Karner Blue long-term monitoring patches units totaling 2.25 miles. All are ROWs bordering County X or perpendicular to it.

Mostly cloudy 55 degree afternoon. Not too many butterflies, but did enjoy watching several American Coots in the river.

On marsh marigold.

11:49-13:19, 59-60F, variable wind 5 - 3 mph, partly cloudy, 1.61 mi

Partly sunny with temps in the low 50's. This is our first sighting of both the American Lady and the Eastern-tailed Blue.

Mostly sunny, 50s

Windy, 75 degree afternoon. Had fun walking the trail with two sandhill cranes today.

One Mourning Cloak kept landing on Joan's hat.

Much of the preserve had been recently burned so we saw very little rock cress. It will be interesting to see what the Olympia Marble numbers are like next year.

Cool (47F), breezy of the lake and mostly cloudy. Saw a male common green darner dragonfly.

No photo as I didn’t have my camera, but I spotted an American Lady ovipositing on the Pussytoes we have in our prairie garden behind our house. We just planted this native garden in the last two years and I’m thrilled she was able to find it!

Nice 82 degree day. Every thing is coming out a month early this year. Silvery blue was a first.

65F, mostly cloudy, light breeze. I think this is my earliest record for black swallowtail.

75 degrees. We expected cloudy conditions but it turned out to be mostly sunny at mid-day. Saw more than we expected. Very pleasant.

Multiple white butterflies observed. Confirmed the identity of only one. Based on experience the others were likely the same species.

Just stopped once at the corner of Klotz Rd and James Rd. The Mourning Cloak was landing high in the tree tops. I saw several other Mourning Cloaks but not at this spot.

5:30pm in the afternoon the thermometer in the sun reading 64 degrees, a spring azure sits around the scats on the driveway from our pet dog. With a walk down to the pier area after unloading the car I flush a Morning Cloak off of the pier platforms still on land. The Cloak took off avoiding a digital moment! Musser Lake Cottage.

Three long-term monitoring sites and one newer site in the Park, and one long-term site near the Park. We also saw 6 unidentified duskywings.

14:15 flew close enough to me to see the black wing edging on a yellow butterfly.

My first Morning Cloak! It just wanted to sun it’s wings and rest. Sunny day 66 degrees with a chance of rain in the forecast by the end of the day.

While doing restoration work on the prairie, I spied Eastern-tailed Blues, an American Lady ovipositing on Pussytoes, and our first recorded Red Admiral this year!

Beautiful day - cranes, Wood Ducks, Northern Waterthrush, Common Green Darner, and all kinds of emerging bog plants. The Harvester did a lot of flying around and not much landing.

Mostly sunny, breezy, 55 degree afternoon.

Nice day - cool and sunny, with a light breeze.

Very Windy, Sunny, 55 degrees 1Pm-4Pm, Popple Creek to Gates Lake up to Riley and back. An Infant Moth, a Brown-Shaded Carpet Moth and many "dozens" of Bombylius major, busy Bee-Flies all over the place!

50s, sunny, breezy

50F, sunny cold south breeze, walk with the boys. Greater bee fly landed on my son and looked cold.

Mostly sunny 60 degree afternoon.

Looking for my first Frosted Elfins of the year.

Sunny, 60F, breezy, spring bees active, six spotted tiger beetle 3, green darner abundant 20+.

Saw the Eastern Comma while planting trees for Arbor Day. Sunny, 60 degree afternoon.

Sunny mild day. Elfins were along the south edge of the Clam Lake Fire Break off of Peet Rd. North of Reed Lake Rd. Olympia marbles various locations in Crex.

I had never been to Stanton Creek Rd. and I thought I was there and walked down the ATV trail. It didn't seem right but I walked a mile and turned back. Stanton Creek Rd was about 100 yards farther south and looked like a wonderful place.