Recent sightings

Just a few peeks of sun in an otherwise cloudy day, but one of them brought us a Mourning Cloak as our 51st yard species, and also lured out the Checkered-Skipper, which we haven’t seen since the 15th.

When I saw the big dark Swallowtail I ran across the field to see what it was. I did not expect a Black Swallowtail, let alone any Swallowtail!
[moderator]: New late date for northern NJ by 5 days.

Warm afternoon- 73 degrees, wind SSE, 0-3 mph
10% cloud cover
Trails west of soccer fields fields

Glorious afternoon. Sunshine and 71 degrees.

Mostly birding. Sun and clouds, 70's, SE wind. Seaside goldenrod mostly spent. One sulphur sp., and one tantalizing escape that might have been a duskywing.

11:45, partly cloudy, low 60’s
Sleepy Orange first occurrence at Casa Richmond

very late in the day; only asters and goldenrod observed blooming

The Ocola Skipper appeared to be quite fresh. Action now confined to asters, Brazilian Verbena, and Tithonia.

12:00-2:00, sunny and 70 degrees, very windy with periodic strong gusts

10:15-11:45 AM. Sun, SW breeze, 62-65 degrees. Asters and goldenrods nearly spent, so almost nothing to hold butterflies here.

Sunny ; Light Wind; 11:20AM to 12:20PM

9:30 AM - 3 PM. Sunny, variable W/SW wind. One southbound Spotted Lanternfly.

The Sleepy Orange was new for our yard. It literally was in the yard for 1 1/2 minutes as I was topping off a couple of bird feeders. It came from the north. When I saw it was flying low, it circled a couple of flower beds, stopping long enough on some verbena for me to make sure it wasn't an Orange Sulphur and then exited over some trees heading south. I went and got my camera in case it circled back but it never did. However, about 10 minutes later a Clouded Sulphur did almost the same thing heading south. Neither butterfly seemed to be much interested in what nectar is left in the yard although the bees still like the New York Asters.

2-430
sunny and 71…

A really gorgeous, sunny day with highs in the low 70s. Not many butterflies around, but while Wade was on the phone with Jack Miller bemoaning our failure to reach 50 garden species for the year, along came a nice female Common Checkered-Skipper to take the honors. We have very few sightings of this species in the yard.

The butterflies were keeping mainly near to the trees but a few were feeding on the open field of seaside goldenrod. Some were roosting in the pines as well.