Butterfly sightings for July 2021

Walked in from the road all the way

Midday, cool, sunny, and breezy. First time this year that I saw a lot of Monarchs.

80 degrees with hazy sun. Really pleased to see my first GRAY COPPER of summer. This was a short visit to look for the Copper.

Near Forest Road 236 about 15 miles south of Cornucopia. This is at least the 3rd time in the past 10-15 years that we have found more than 600 Bog Coppers on a walk through count here.

Also 0.5 miles east of Forest Road 137/Riley Lake Road. Our roadside survey here only found 1 European Skipper; the other butterflies were on the bog.

Many monarchs laying eggs on abundant common milkweeds. Photo of newly emerged with empty chrysalis. One unidentified skipper.

Many dragonflies: 12 spotted, Widow skimmer, Amber, Halloween pennant, Green darner.

Seranaded on my walk around the boardwalk by a young Pileated Woodpecker.

Spruce Lane,11:30 Am - 1:30 Pm, 75 degrees, gusty winds, scattered clouds: Many of the butterfies I flush today, get carried away by the gusty winds. For the fourth year I search for copper butterflies on this weekend. Dorcas Coppers, still camera doesn't show that a pair was courting, and in another moment the Dorcas takes on a Northern Crescent for a Fleabane flower and wins after three bouts!

Along the 7 Bridges Trail, a pair of them flying together.

Same sites as the June 15 report, except today we surveyed the eastern bog at Twin Lake, a Dorcas Copper/Frigga Fritillary shrubby bog, instead of the immediately adjacent drier western muskeg bog. Four of the Dorcas Coppers were on the eastern Twin lakes bog, and 1 other Dorcas Coppers was on the Twin Lakes roadside survey.

Rode my bike slowly starting in Harshaw and going about 4 miles north. Stopped at bridges and bog areas several times. Bonus species were Ebony Jewelwing and River Jewelwing along Bearskin Creek. Sunny beautiful day, 75+

Crane Lake and East Roger Lake Bogs south of town, and two bogs at Wishbone Lake north of town. 160 Bog Coppers on the Wishbone Lake NW bog and 110 on Wishbone's SE bog are the 2nd and 3rd highest Bog Copper counts we got on 26 known Bog Copper sites surveyed during the local flight July 1-4. Wishbone NW has become a regular Dorcas Copper site (2 seen today) in the last 5-6 years, after almost a 30-year period before that when we saw no Dorcas Coppers there.

Incidental while removing invasive plants.

About 10 miles west of Clam Lake,. We don't usually see Dorcas Coppers here. This Bog Copper count is the 4th highest total count out of 26 bogs we surveyed (higher counts were 649, 160, and 116, all on July 1) in the Bog and Dorcas Copper local flights July 1-4, and 5th highest index if measured per unit time or distance.

Seen at our home in Deforest resting on a sunflower plant.

Walked in from road to the creek by the tree line

64 deg, sunny, breezy

Nice to see a Monarch caterpillar on my milkweed today. Also watched a ragged Monarch butterfly chasing away any other Monarch that landed on any of the flowers or flew into the area. Sunny 75 degree day.

It was windy and the clouded sulphurs were very active and plentiful. I only saw two monarchs, and expected to see more. I saw a blue of some sort, but it flew away before I could get a photo or ID it. The Viceroys were good models today.

Temp in the 90s; feeding on native blossoms at residence.

Sunny, breezy, 70 degree morning.

Hwy 96 to School Rd.

Sunny, no wind and upper 70's observed between 11 - 3:30. The Wild Bergamot is in full bloom and was obviously a recent hatch of Pearl Crescent. The Red-spotted Purple is definitely a Butterfly Survivor!

Mostly off-road in boggy habitat

Gates Lake road west of FR 508 "Federal" 74 degrees, Clear Sky, No wind today. A poor day for Copper butterflies, but lots of Baltimore Checkerspots and Monarchs. Twelve butterfly species observed!

80 degrees with hazy sun. All before 12:30pm.

Temps around 68° with mild breeze.

Morning Cloaks on milkweed.

I've walked the Arboretum for 20 years; today was the most milkweed I've ever seen there. Kudos to the director and staff.

(pic: Black Swallowtail chrysalis on rue from our home garden)

Our yard in town. Black swallowtail caterpillar on dill.

This was a annual butterfly count, within a 15-mile diameter circle, for the North American Butterfly Association (NABA). The count has now been conducted for 33 years! 5 people with close-focusing binoculars and cameras formed 3 parties, observed for 14 party-hours and found 506 butterflies of 38 species. This was the 5th highest species count in the 33 years.
We found 2 Acadian Hairstreaks which we had last seen a quarter of a century ago, so today's sighting may be a modern record for Columbia County. Two species were found in numbers that were the highest of the 33 years. Dion Skipper (9) and Broad-winged Skipper (4). The Broad-winged was seen only once before, in 2012.
Also, Mourning Cloaks were unusually prevalent (9), tieing the previous high. Also Monarchs had their 2nd highest numbers, second only to 2018.
Goose Pond is within the circle and was surveyed by Madison Audubon Society. Their results will be added in and published by NABA.
Thanks to counters Douglas Buege, Karl and Dorothy Legler, Fred Dike, and Jim Otto. Photo of Glassywing, Acadian and Broken-Dash by Jim Otto. Photo of Edwards' by Fred Dike, the rest by Karl Legler. (Extremely worn Long Dash was an ID challenge!)

warm, light wind, late morning. Large numbers of Hackberry and Tawny Emperors including a handful of beautiful light orange/yellowish colored Tawny Emperors that seemed a bit larger and more brightly colored than usual.

Warm light wind. I saw a lot of skippers and hairstreaks that went unidentified.

Same site as we reported on June 14 and 23. This is a relatively high Bog Copper count for here, and a typical or slightly low Dorcas Copper count.

in the atrium between the buildings

On swamp (red) milkweed

Same sites and roadside counts as we reported on June 14 and 23. The Bog Copper Counts are below median. On June 23 just 4/12 (33%) of our Dorcas Copper sightings here were on roadside units. Today 50/61, or 82%, were on roadside counts. This is a typical progression from early in the flight (coppers out on the bog more) to later in the flight (copper coming out to ditches or other roadsides more. But only 3% of the Bog Coppers seen today were on roadside counts; usually we see more Bog Coppers on roadside counts here than that during main flight.

The large nip in the wing of the Tawny Emperor did not seem to deter it.

Our yard

Five sites: Port Wing Bibon Lake, Port Wing Boreal Forest West Unit, Bark Bay Slough and the bog south of the road at Bark Bay Slough, and Lost Creek Slough Bog. These are the slowest sites we survey so the Bog Coppers were in early main flight. Today at Port Wing Boreal Forest West was one of about 10 times, out of >1000 times surveying a site during the Bog Copper or Bog Fritillary flight, when we saw a Bog Fritillary the same day in the same bog as a Bog Copper (61 of them today on this bog). We saw at least 13 Bog Coppers on every site except for the bog south of the road at Bark Bay, which is a site where we have seen small numbers of Dorcas Coppers (but not today) in the few times we've tried it.

Thousands of small whitish-silvery moths were swarming the bog and the few Bog Coppers we saw were chasing them.

Fresh generation of Monarchs is starting to emerge.

There were so many Monarchs today! Today was the first time we have ever documented Mourning Cloaks on the prairie, and we had five of them spotted throughout the property. We also saw our first Banded Hairstreaks of the year.

Temps near 80 by noon. Hazy sun. My FOY Celery Looper moth.

Sunny 85 degree day.

Walked out onto floating bog at north side of Marsh Lake, just to west of parking spot on south side of Co. Rd. W. Saw 20 bog coppers in just a few minutes.

Annual butterf;ly count; I walked along the Milwaukee River from the west parking lot.

big female!

Our yard

Black swallowtail caterpillar on wild parsnip.

Looked around a bit after doing some work.

A scruffy-looking fritillary feeding on milkweed in my front yard.

11:00 - 11:40, 1.1 mi. Most Monarchs I have seen on a neighborhood walk so far.

Friends of the Cedarburg Bog Dragonfly and Butterfly field trip - the group scoured the trails on a very hot morning in cooperation with the annnual Riveredge Bitterfly count.

Same place as our June 13 and June 8 posts. The Green Comma is the first Polygonia we've seen this year.

Gates Lake Road from Sailor to Sheep Ranch. 9.30Am - 3.30 Pm
high of 86 degrees,sky early with wispy thin clouds, clearing in the afternoon as wind become very gusty! "GREAT BUTTERFLY DAY"

A Leconte's Haploa Moth

Pulled into Kettle Morraine parking lot just to turn around and it had several butterflies!

Early in the flight at this relatively fast site we found 36 Bog Coppers here on June 24. This is our highest Bog Copper count at a site outside of Bayfield County in 2021, but we did not survey Glocke Lake (Oconto County) for coppers.

Unusually dark Tawny Emperor

I've never seen so many Atlantis Fritillaries in my life. Counted 56 in just a 10-minute, 150-meter walk along the road, with dozens more elsewhere as I drove by. All heavily favoring the dogbane in peak bloom. Someone with more time could've easily tallied hundreds.

Some Mourning Mloaks were very fresh. One looked about a year old.

Five pairs of tandem Monarchs

About 50% of Butterfly Milkweed clusters had at least 1 Hairstreak, most Banded.

We surveyed the bog, and also two short roadside segments where we find Dorcas Coppers most years. All the coppers we saw except for one Dorcas were on the bog.

Went out looking for a Indigo Dusky Wing, but did not see any.

Checked 3 different locations. Best luck near a creek where some decaying matter was attracting a lot of skippers.
The deer flies were terrible but there was an amazing variety of butterflies here. Would be fun to go with a more experienced butterfly person!

Sunny, humid, 90 degree day.

Seen a few times this summer, same spot

This was the 31st annual Madison NABA Count. 24 people in 6 parties observed for 21.5 party-hours finding 483 butterflies of 29 species (one less than last year.) The group at UW Arboretum's Grady Tract found 14 species, same as last year. (Sorry, Ben, my browser can not access your photos!) The photo of Hickory Hairstreak is by Ginny Nelson. High temperature was 92 and heat index got to 97. One counter suffered heat exhaustion and had to be taken back to the parking lot by ambulance. (Yes, butterflies can be dangerous!)

In garden and yard of home.

Thanks to Dean Hanson's report of bog coppers I decided to check out this area and am very glad I did. I walked almost all the way out to the lake. I quit counting bog coppers after twenty shortly after starting. I also walked a narrow strip of un-mowed ditch between the bog and hwy W. There were also a lot of bog coppers nectaring on dog bane in that narrow strip.

Another short walk around the prairie. All before 10am. Hot & humid.

Bee-balm in full bloom now with some coneflowers starting. Lots of blooming Milkweed on south side of my house. The GS Frit was a first ever sighting in my 6 years here.

Most species I see are from the lower parking lot along Hwy F. There is a short trail through the prairie to the woods. The prairie west of the campground is OK for a few species also. Mostly Monarchs and Frits. Not as good plant diversity there.

Between School and Spring roads. Early. Humid and windy.

Walked the wooded stretch from the parking area on the east end of Swamp Ln to the wet meadow. A fritillary (likely Aphrodite) and a skipper didn’t cooperate for IDable views.

Sunny, windy, very humid 90 degree day.

The 20 acre area contains prairie, savanna, woodland and old gravel pit covered over.

9-9:20am, sunny and hot, slight breeze.

Sunny, breezy, humid, 90 degree day.

Noon, 90 degrees and sunny. I was only out because I had to check the Bluebird boxes. Too hot for me, but not for butterflies.

Camera got overheated (as did the photographer) the pictures from the phone are awful. The butterflies were not in the main field but rather were in the Monarda/Foxglove field. There were tons of grass skippers of all different species but without a camera....The Great Spangled was the darkest I have ever seen

This was mainly a robber fly trip of which I saw four species including Laphria thoracica.

Not many pollination sources so the swamp milkweed was the place to be, incidental while removing invasives.

Sunny, low 90's with no wind. Swamp Milkweed was the bloom of choice for the butterflies interested in nectar.

Along Hwy M.

North of Spring Rd. Heavy dew yet along, the trail at 10:00. Clouds of mosquitos made this a quick trip.

These are the sightings from the last 2 days. No Baltimores unfortunately.

Annual Poweshiek skipperling surveys (none observed). Nectar plants relatively scarce this year, including black-eyed Susan. Site is extremely dry.

I unexpectedly had the morning off, so I went to Lake Park to check out the butterfly/rain gardens. If I was looking for variety on this cool, cloudy day, I didn't find it, but my, there were a lot of Monarchs.

Incidental while gardening.

8:37 - 11:17, overcast and windy (13 - 8 mph NNE), 59 - 61 F. Dark brown wood nymph with no yellow around spots.

Hiked a few trails within the well fields complex - oak barrens with cherry, vetch, vervain, etc.

This was the 32nd annual Trempealeau NABA Butterfly Count. Rather, it was barely 1/2 a count. Cool temperatures and heavy overcast did not allow any butterflying until 1:30 p.m. It was 67 degrees with about 25% sunshine. High temperature was 72 degrees. 2 people in 1 party observing with close-focusing binoculars for 3.5 party-hours. We found 25 species, less than the usual all-day count. I didn't carry my camera because of the dismal prospects. So, of course we didn't get a photo of our unexpected best find, a scarce stray, a cooperative Sleepy Orange! (We know it well from years of butterflying in Texas.)

Cloudy, windy, 60 degree day.

Found in a pasture. Overcast day.

130th south of Griffith and the east end of Lake Rd. Fairly certain I had 1 Regal Fritillary and 3-4 Meadow Fritillaries on Lake, but they never landed for better views. Pretty chilly, so activity was fairly low.

South of Hortonville trailhead. Nice conditions but not much out.

Incidental while doing a bumblebee survey. Found four different varieties of bumblebees. Unusual to find a broadwinged in town

Our milkweed patches were all full of Monarchs. As we walked the area, the Compton Tortoiseshell butterflies seemed to be following us. It was the most Compton Tortoiseshell butterflies we've ever seen at one time. Sunny, breezy, 70 degree day.