Butterfly sightings for July 2022

The butterfly did not want to leave my finger it liked the color of my fingernails.

10:09 - 13:52, 3.7 mi

Incidental while removing invasives from our hunting land

Our driveway

9:15 to 10:45. Cloudy, 73 degrees.

Warm, humid, and sunny. Short walk today.

New Species for me!

Warm, very windy, early afternoon. Looking for hairstreaks.

The emperors are pretty much gone. But at 8:30am on the 1st I had a surprise. We have two ash tree stumps in our backyard, which have sprouted. The saplings are now about 3.5ft tall. On the morning of the first they were festooned with a large number of hairstreaks. I have seen so many neither before nor since.

Many Bee-mimic Robber Flies at Woodland-Prairie edge.

Hot evening, light wind, and lots of deer flies

70% sun, 81 degrees F. 8 bogs + 5 bog roadsides: Moose Junction East and West, Chaffee-Foxboro, Milchesky Road 1.75, Milchesky 1.15, North Bear Creek, Bear Creek, and Lyman Lake. 13 of the 14 Dorcas Coppers where we could tell its gender were males. We found Dorcas Coppers at all but the two slowest sites--both on Milchesky Road. All of these sites also have Bog Copper populations. Ten Jutta Arctics on this late date shows that the flights are running later than average. The Variegated Fritillary was along the Milchesky 1.15 roadside.

Hairstreaks are still battling in the morning.

This was the 34th annual "Mud Lake" NABA Butterfly Count. Cloudy-Bright. 8 counters in 4 groups using close-focusing binoculars. We Found 35 species. The highlight was a new species for the count, American Snout (2)--a rare stray from the South. Thanks to counters, Douglas Buege, Karl Legler, Fred Dike, Tod Highsmith, Gary Jahnke, Jim Otto, Donna and Bill Williams-Richter. Snout photos by Jim Otto. Banded Hairstreak, Northern Broken Dash, and Robber Fly which killed a Brown we were trying to identify -- by Douglas Buege. Any other photos are by Donna Williams-Richter. Counting at Audubon's Goose Pond will also be added to this total for publication by the North American Butterfly Association (NABA).

Lots of dragon flies out today. Had fun watching a male American Goldfinch pulling out and eating thistle seeds. Sunny 75 degree morning.

First time to visit this area. No trails into the area. County F goes along the west border.
Cloudy, 75 degrees. 10:00 to 11:00 am. Very little flying.

Very pleasant morning for a hike.

Recently some biocides were sprayed in the park as evidenced by little signs all over. Despite lots of milkweed, butterflies, bees and other insects were scarce. Monarch drifted into park from across the street and left quickly. Progressive Madison in action!

Probably my best butterfly day ever! According to my watch, I walked just almost 6 miles and covered the majority of the entire park. 1 pair of mating Long Dash and 1 white form Clouded Sulphur.

We also saw 2 tiny peacock flies.

Weedy field north of North Industrial Drive

Two days earlier I saw 6-8 of the Hickory Hairstreak on some lower limbs of a tree. I was out in the garden today around 8 a.m. and what a treat to see all the Hickory Hairstreak sunning themselves. I checked at 9:30 and they were all still mostly still in the same locations -- on raspberry bushes, a grape vine, in the grass and on the lower limbs of a tree. When I checked again at 12:30 I only found 3. There was blooming Milkweed nearby but I didn't find any Hairstreaks taking advantage of that. The count was conservative!

Calm with temps 70's.

Decided to try for a Poweshiek skipper along the White River Tamarack SNA which has a similar ecosystem to Puchyan. But the poison sumac and knee deep mud proved too much for me to reach the spot. The Karners were fresh, second brood starting

Just a quick walk. Looking for caterpillars. Found Gorgone Checkerspot and Pearl Cresent.

76-78 degrees F, 100% sunshine. The route is 0.9 miles long. The checkerspot and crescent numbers are low for here but maybe they'll rebound if it rains.

9:11 - 10:25, partly sunny with low wind speeds. Monarda is just starting to bloom but there weren't nectaring butterflies on it.

Cloudy with high in the 70s. I saw the Viceroy laying eggs.

Near 80 degrees at 9am but clouds moved in and dropped temps by 10 degrees, rain by 12pm. Not much flying.

One flyby Tiger Swallowtail.

76 degrees F, 100% sunshine.

71-72 degrees F, 100% sunshine. West of Forest Road 236. The Northern Pearly-eyes were in the forest next to the bog.

Crane Lake bog, bog east of Roger Lake, and two floating bogs on Wishbone Lake. 66-71 degrees F, 85% sunshine. We've barely missed the start of the Bog Copper flight at most of the the 23 bogs surveyed June 30-July 2. Here we found 37 Bog Coppers on the larger and 3 on the smaller Wishbone bog, and 2 at Roger Lake.

A lot of butterfly (and deer fly!) activity along the heavily wooded paths.

Cloudy with highs in the upper 70s. 12:00-1:00

Roadsides only, along County Hwy N. 78-80 degrees F, 80% sunshine.

10 minutes. 80 degrees F, sunny. This rather fast bog was ahead of the ones further NW in phenology.

78 degrees F, sunny. Includes 2 roadside counts. Two of the Dorcas Coppers were along the road.

Copulating monarch butterflies.

Hairstreaks and Emperors were both chasing each other around the canopy in the forest.

Butterflies didn't appear until the dew was gone. 8:17 - 10:03, calm or low winds, mostly sunny

Roughly 10:00 am - 1 pm.

Incidental while removing yet more sweet clover

Mid-day, about 80° F.

I believe this is a Red Spotted Purple. Looks like it survived a predator attack

Flying around and enjoying a snack on flowers

2 - 4 p.m. 81 degrees, windy.

12:00-1:00, cloudy before the rains came.

Spotted on the Yellow Trail

Walked our MFL late in the late afternoon after the rain. Mostly cloudy, humid, mid 80s, calm wind. Many Little Wood-Satyrs at numerous spots throughout the woods. Monarchs are hitting the common milkweed blooms. Spotted several Banded Hairstreaks in the scrub oak. The wild raspberries were a busy place with eastern tailed blues, a skipper, cabbage white and many dragonflies.

8:10 In the area closer to Olbrich with the Effigy Mound sculpture. One Monarch was a female on blooming milkweed. Did not see enough detail to sex second Monarch. There aren't many Monarchs in the neighborhood so far.

Swallowtail caterpillar on a dill plant and a monarch on Swamp Milkweed.

Right before the thunderstorm hit in the afternoon. First time seeing regals here!

1:00 to 4:20 pm. 85-92 degrees F, 85% sunshine. The butterflies seemed to be avoiding the heat and dessication by reducing tier activity. We surveyed 6 of our 25 half-mile long Regal Fritillary and Gray Copper long-term monitoring units. We saw 42 male and 1 female Regal Fritillary. The Gray Copper counts are below average. Even well before this year's peak, all six Regal Fritillary unit counts were higher than their highest count in the low Regal year of 2021. This doesn't include whites, sulphurs, small fritillaries, or other butterflies smaller than a sulphur seen along the roads. We also saw a dead Banded Hairstreak.

Hot, humid, and still with lots of things flying. Wood-nymphs showing up in numbers now.

Foggy to start. Hot and humid.

partly sunny, 70s, calm

This butterfly was sitting in the mulch of my perennial garden by the water hose. 80-degree sunny day.

Hot and humid after last night’s rain, the mosquitoes were out but the blackberries were ripe and delicious.

Very great. Tons of Gypsy moth males, caterpillars, and pupae.

Sunny and mild. 10:30-1:30

Saw my first Mulberry Wing Skipper and while photographing it, a Hummingbird Clearwing Moth came to share the nectar on the milkweed flower. Partly sunny, breezy, 75 degree morning.

I walked along the Milwaukee River between the boat landing and the east parking lot.
First Arrow Clubtail dragonfly of the year. Stream Bluets were catching mayflies.

Cloudy, temps low/mid 70s. Not an ideal day but still a few things flying. There were also 3 flyby Tiger Swallowtails.

Got here late due to traffic. Not much flying.

Bike path in downtown La Crosse along the Mississippi.

Mostly cloudy, 78 degrees, 10:30 to 11:30 a.m.
Some sulphurs also flying.

Not sure on the skipper id.

Swamp milkweed, nettles and wild parsnip.

75 F, partly cloudy, calm.

First seen on the floor of the garage.

cloudy. 70s, slight breeze

Tons of Pearly-eyes were piled on scat. First time they have out numbered wood satyrs.

These are just the butterflies I recorded for a day that started at 65F and rose to 84F by 4pm. This was our 8th year and I'm thankful to have had Nick Gremban on all counts. He and Nicole Shutt brought many Forest Service interns and employees, joining Ron Krueger, JoAnne Lund, Dave Hogg, and Mike Reese. Thanks to all for an excellent day!

10:30 to 1:00 Sunny and warm.

10:00 - 11:30, 1.4 miles. Spent some time photographing bumble bees for the WI Bumblebee Brigade project.

Almost entirely in grasslands.

3.5 miles of transects. 30th year of monitoring Regal Fritillaries at the western (Regals seen 1995, 1996, and 2021) and eastern (Regals seen every year 1995-2006 and 2010-2022) populations here. The Aphrodite Fritillary count is high this year like it was 20-29 years ago.

Some coppers left unidentified. Sunny but cool for July. About an hour midday.

Banded hairstreak in pollinator garden. It seemed lethargic and let me transport it to a place safe from the rain.

Windy, mostly sunny, afternoon. Looking for hairstreaks.

Mid 70s, mostly cloudy and windy.

cloudy, 70s, breezy. On Natural Resources Foundation field trip

American Beauty navigating a windy afternoon in the garden and alighting on milkweed

2:30 to 4:30 pm, mostly sunny. Fun to watch the hairstreaks courting in shafts of light arouind their "favorite" perching sites, and fighting off Commas that wanted the same sunny spots.

Eight days after the last butterfly report at this sight and lots less time was spent. Sunny with some wind with temps between 85 - 90. Did not see any Hackberry Emperor but the Clouded Sulphur numbers were definitely up! Very happy to see a few Monarchs this time.

Seen at my grandfather's on the outskirts of Nekoosa. Heavily wooded area with large flower garden and natural flowering plants in the area.

Lots of grass skippers moving too fast for id. Also saw the first hairstreaks of the year for this location. Common milkweed is coming into full bloom.

Sunny, 68-82 degrees F. Activity of small butterflies and fritillaries, but not of pierids, Monarchs, and Wood Nymphs, declined after 1:00 pm (because of dessication, we think) so we stopped earlier than usual. We surveyed 13 of our 25 long-term monitoring units for Regal Fritillaries/Gray Coppers (each surveyed 23-26 years) that have 0.5 mile long transects. The plots that used to be the "worst" or "2nd worst" of these 13 plots for Regal Fritillaries had 42 Regal Fritillaries and 115 Aphrodite Fritillaries today, and has been grazed for years. The other 12 L-ts had 51 total Regals. Gray Copper counts remain below average. Silvery Checkerspot is an unusual find for us here.

Laying an egg on a hydrangea bud, sunny, late afternoon

Perfect July day. Lots of butterflies in the meadow, but lots of poison ivy, too. Widow Skimmers putting on a nice show by the pier.

First time at this venue. Another great location protected by the DNR. Only six miles of the many miles were hiked and 23 species of butterflies! Amazing. One Punctured Tiger Beetle, three Efferia albibarbis an one Laphria flavicollis.

Numbers were down except the Banded Hairstreaks!

A lifer for me, right in my backyard!

This was the annual North American Butterfly Association (NABA) Madison Butterfly Count. 8 observers in 5 groups used close-focusing binoculars to find 273 butterflies of 31 species. It was mostly sunny. Highlights were 2 strays from south and west, American Snout (2) and Variegated Fritillary. Species diversity was fairly good but overall populations seemed low. Thanks to counters Tod Highsmith, Joan Braune, Karl and Dorothy Legler, Fred Dike, Ginny and Bill Nelson, and Pam Skaar.

From 10:30 to 12:30. Mid 70s to 80, sunny and breezy. No adult Monarchs despite quite a lot of milkweed in the ditch (not mowed so far). Found only one Monarch caterpillar. Always a good location for Baltimore Checkerspot- they were everywhere. One of the Eyed Browns got into the car with me for an easy pic.

Both Fritillaries chased away a Monarch and a hummingbird, it was pretty comical lol

Lots of nectar sources available. Watched one Monarch laying eggs on milkweed leaves. Sunny, breezy, 75 degree early afternoon.

Attracted to our black doormat

A hunting club was working their dogs and shooting in two of the prairies. The Meadow Fritillary was on scat. 10:07 - 12:11, sunny, no or low wind, 73 - 77 F.

9 unidentified skippers. I was mainly on Griffith Ave, between Townline Rd and Hwy F and about a 1/2 mile south on 130th from Griffith Ave.

Trail ran through a wetland with sedges on both sides.

Sunny 75 degree afternoon.

Incidental while removing sweet clover. I love the look the skipper gave me as I approached