Recent sightings

92F hot sunny, butterflies on small zinnias

9:30 to 11:45. This was a field trip of the NABA North Jersey Butterfly Club in conjunction with NJ Conservation Foundation and guests.

Leaderless Walk (6 participants)

FOY Delaware and peck's Skippers.

Sunny, very hot and humid all day. FOY Painted Lady for the yard, and a nice count of Junipers for us.

Sachem is by far the most plentiful Skipper this year. Silver-spotted Skipper normally leads all but Cabbage White in the daily and seasonal totals for my property.
1000 to 1400. Sunny, 90+ degrees.

9:45 to 3:45. Sunny, hot, and humid. Mid-80s to low 90s.

10:20 AM - noon. Hazy, humid, and 86 degrees. Most butterflies on Mountain-mint, between the Stahl parking lot and areas east and west of the silos. Few butterflies in the big Stahl fields or the field west of the River Road Park gravel lot. There is a little Monarda there but nothing nectaring on it. Only a single grass-skipper.

1:50-2:45. 87-90°. We checked the spot where another observer told us he recently had 50+ Com. Checkered-Skippers (at end of the grassy lane that leads east from the Whittingham office). We found them only on and near their White Clover nectar source. They are likely using Velvetleaf as a host plant.

9:45-10:30, sunny, 79°.

Late afternoon, 3:45- 4:20

Afternoon time spent extensively in this area from MM1 to Roy WMA and entire length of Mountain Road to Buttermilk Falls and junction at Walpack Center.

Heading to Old Mine Road areas, noting butterflies along this portion of the drive

Brief visit (12:00-12:45), mostly on the north end parking lot areas

Late morning visit (10:45-11:30)

12:20-1:50. Warm but slightly breezy. Just walked the two upper fields. Glad to see so many large butterflies with the kids!

9:45 AM - 1:30 PM. Sun and Clouds, 90 degrees. Most butterflies seen in the southern part of the park, near the parking lot at the end of the road and in the lower of the two fields; we barely covered a quarter of the latter. Most action on the abundant Mountain-mint. Junipers an actual count, not an estimate, although we are sure there were many more. Fewer butterflies at the dog park, mainly sulfurs and swallowtails, and one nice Checkered-skipper at the gate. Dearth of grass-skippers. We found no anglewings, likely because we spent most of our time in the fields.

on blooming milkweed

on small zinnias, noon

a drive by

11:15-12:40. Sunny, 80-86°. Juniper Hairstreaks were all nectaring on Wild Parsnip.

10:30-11:10. 78-80°. This is the State land across CR 521 from White Lake Natural Resource Area. We checked the area south of the northernmost of the 2 small parking areas on the west side of 521, where N. Metalmark formerly occurred.

9:20-10:00. Sunny, warm, humid.

The 2 meadows at the north end (Greenway entrance) and the path in between. The large Wild Bergamot patch is in full flower. Surprisingly few butterflies. The Buckeyes were on Mtn. Mint.
11:00-11:45. Sunny, hot & humid.

Butterflies seen while working: 2 more Monarchs while driving home.

10:00-11:30. Mostly sunny, 80s. Nice to see a few swallowtails. First Giant we have seen of 2nd brood.

Rain forecast was pushed back so we gave it a shot. Noon-2:30 pm. Spent most of the time in the woods hiking.

Spent 30 minutes making a couple passes through the garden. Quite a few bees.

Quick round from 11:00 am - 12:15 pm with the kids.

10:00-11:20, sunny, 83°.

1:30pm-4:30pm, part of NABA Raritan count

11:45am-1:15pm, part of NABA Raritan count

9:00am-11:30am, part of NABA Raritan count

I noted a few butterflies around the Crater Lake area while hiking. Also found a few Buck Moth caterpillars.

2:00 pm - 3:15 pm

1 Hummingbird Clearwing Moth
3 Snowberry Clearwing Moth

From about 2-3pm. One eastern tiger swallow tail was a dark morph. Photos here and at Bamboo Brook by Mike Lee, except for the Amer. Lady picture. We also saw a few hummingbirds and clearwing moths.

from about 10:45 to 1:30- ran into the Newlons as we were about to switch parks. Sunny mid-80's. 3 of the eastern tiger swallowtails were dark morphs.

Sunny, mid to high 80s. Observations from about 2:00 on.

10:15-1:00. Sunny, 70s to 80s. Our target was Arogos Skipper, but no luck. Our best count of Am. Copper this year.

Sunny, 1:00-2:00

12:30 - 1:30 PM. Lots of Mountain-mint blooming but only the Hairstreak on it.

930 AM-noon. Nice to see Swallowtails, most on Monarda. Dearth of Grass-skippers.

Hiked for 3 hours but the site was mostly forested so number/diversity was low.

1:30 t0 2:15 PM, one observer, warm, sunny, calm

on blooming milkweed, 4 pm

Searched for 2 hours in the afternoon. Cabbage Whites were abundant but not nearly as many as my last visit.

Observations made between 9:30 and 3:30. Gray Comma was a no show until after 2 p.m. Both were puddling. Likely males. Juniper Hairstreaks were actively nectaring on what appeared to be narrow leaved mountain mint, a few on common yarrow, and one on Wild Bergamot. One E.tiger was a dark form female. Spent very little time in the dog park field as Bobolinks were becoming agitated.

4:15-5:15, mostly sunny, 80 deg. Not a lot to see.

2:30-5:30. Mostly sunny, 82. Also had at least 1 Mulberry Wing (which does not appear on the list when we access this site) and 1 satyr sp. Lack of swallowtails is disappointing.

Mostly sunny, temperature in the high 70's.

9:30-12:30 was there for a plant program then for about another hour, walked around the meadows. Lots of flowering plants: Mints, milkweed, thistle, dog bane, also flowers in the butterfly garden. One eastern tiger swallowtail was a huge dark phase.

Sun and clouds until rain around 5:00. Warm and very humid. Our first yard Coral Hairstreak in a decade or more was a real thrill.

9:30-11:30. Partly sunny, warm, very humid. Seen by 12 participants on Leaderless Walk.

Warm sunny.

10:30 to 3:00. Warm but mostly cloudy with occasionally breaks of sun.

10 AM - 2 PM. Sun and clouds, 85 degrees. Black Dashes and Mulberry Wings where Steve Glynn found them, on Swamp Milkweed at the small trailhead parking lot on Long Hill/New Vernon Road, not far south of the northern edge of the Refuge, where the gas pipeline crosses the road. Lots of Dogbane and Mountain-mint at the Wildlife Observation Center but few butterflies.

Mostly cloudy with periods of sun; very warm and humid.
Pipevine Swallowtail was a brief, very welcome visitor to our Brazilian Verbena. We also had 2 Mulberry Wings.

1000 to 1400, intermittent observation. Mostly sunny, 85 to 90.

Sun and clouds - very warm, very humid

Sunny and 90.

130 to 1245. Mostly Sunny, 90 degrees. Milkweed blooms past peak.

1200 to1530. Intermittent observation. Mostly sunny, 90 degrees.

10:30 am - 1:00 pm. Most active area was the Monarda patch by the entrance gate.

mid-day, on little zinnias, warm, sunny

10:20 AM - 2:15 PM. Sun and clouds. A few Monarda blooming, most still in green buds. Impressive Orange milkweed was attracting many bees but few butterflies. Still some Common milkweed blooms. Metalmarks coming and going, hard to get an accurate count. Painted Lady was very fresh.

Late afternoon stop. Checked wet areas near the Wilderness Trail entrances on north and south ends.

Parking area at the north had big numbers coming into the swamp milkweed viewable from the fence.

11-12. Front of building all Monarda in full bloom. Lots of bees but no butterflies there.

Sunny and warm - most butterflys seen in the power line cut near the Edison Bog overlook

Observed between 10 am to 12:30 pm. Area's of dry grassy fields, a creek and wetlands.

Sunny all day, 75-80º.
The butterfly of the day was the Mulberry Wing.

Butterflies are late and scarce this season. Finally, some are coming to my garden.
1315-1350, mid 80's, bright sun

spent about 5 hrs hiking around and only "casually" looking for butterflies; probably more would have been found in the powerline cuts but those were very overgrown and tick-ridden. Sunny, 70-80F.

12:00-1:30 at White Lake, 2:45-4:00 at Vass Homestead.
Sunny, 75-80 deg. The Homestead is directly across CR 521 from White Lake. There is an extensive stand of Canada Thistle, Dogbane, and Common Milkweed to the right of the barn. The well-marked Dion Skipper was seen briefly on milkweed near the white barn, far from any wetland.

The 2 meadows at the north end of the preserve. The large patch of Wild Bergamot not yet in full flower.
11:00-12:15.

Posing on Yarrow.

Observations made between 3:15 & 5:30 p.m. 79 degrees with part sun. Spectacular Asclepias tuberosa!

Early afternoon. Windy and mostly overcast while here. Loads of nectar, few butterflies.

Surprised to locate the spot again having not visited it since 2010.

So nice to see Baltimore Checkerspots again! Hopefully this species will not go the way of Harris's Checkerspot in NJ. Observed one mated pair and one Chrysalis.

5-6:30 pm. 1.5 hrs hiking rd/white/yellow/blue/red trails, but all butterflies were in the early part of the red trail which borders on farm fields.

1:15 pm - 1:45 pm
Only "The Quarry" Native Plant Garden and area around the parking lot.

Almost missed the Pipevine Swallowtail as it fluttered around depositing its eggs.

12 Noon - 12:45 pm

1 Snowberry Clearwing Moth also.