Recent sightings

11:00 AM - 1:00 PM
Looking for Essex County wetland species.
The entrance from Kirkpatrick Ln. is posted. We entered through a small park west of the powerline. One small patch of sand had over 100 Cicada Killers.

noon

Observation from 12:30-2:10pm and again from 3:00-4:30pm. Covered a good majority of the park. Two more Northern Pearly-eye observations. One near Kitty's Field and the other out by the Dance Floor. Horace's Duskywing love the mountainmint on the center path of Kitty's Field. A few flyby duskywings went unided, one seemed small.

Sunny, high 70's, moderate humidity, 10 mph breeze.

In conjunction with NJ Conservation Foundation. 9:30 - 12:15. Mostly sunny, high 70’s. 3 dark form Eastern Tiger Swallowtails included in total reported.

1:10 - 3:10 PM. Covered field south of driveway. Sunny and warm.

Worked the fields near the parking lot on Fredon-Springdale Road from 2:15-3:15.
upper 70's to low 80's

Very little Monarda

9:40-11:00
68-73 degrees
Most of the junipers were taking nectar from Wild Parsnip and Queen Anne's Lace—both alien biennials

Sunny, upper 70's, humidity 50% +. Finally, some skippers are flying.

12:30-4:30. Cone Flower and Buttonbush had the action.
First ever Dion in yard.
14 species plus a dark Swallowtail and 2 Hairstreaks that zipped through.

2:25-3:00. Sunny
No Harvester!

10:30-12:30. Sunny, 80 deg.
Very little nectar

10am - 12 noon
77 sunny no clouds and dry…..
1 of the tigers was a dark morph

Observations from 1:30-2:40pm. Hot and sunny. I checked on the Woodpecker Swamp skippers with success. Had more of both Black Dash and Mulberry Wing this time. I surveyed a little bit more of the area today. Nice, new Tiger Swallowtails. The front garden is full of Bergamot now and the skippers and hummingbird moths are absolutely loving it.

Leaderless Walks - 8 participants

I found several newly hatched Monarch caterpillars on Common Milkweed as well as a potted Butterfly Weed that I started from seed last year.

12:00-3:30 PM
permit required

Sunny all day, high about 82; most observations in the afternoon. Lots of singletons today.

12:00 to 4:00. Sunny, quite breezy; temps in upper 70s-low 80s. Swallowtails beginning to emerge. Very cooperative Giant was mineralizing and allowed close approach. N. Pearly-eyes all in one general area of woods. Pearl Crescents have finally exploded!

Briefly late AM and 3 - 3:15 pm

12:40 p.m. hot (85F) and humid before any storms
on small zinnias

The 2 meadows at North end. Greenway entrance

Most common wood nymphs I've ever seen.

Sunny, high about 90, extremely humid. One of our highest counts of Juniper Hairstreak in the yard.

88F, after 7 pm… freshly hatched butterfly, landed on a
pool float

THI 90+; little breeze. Duskywing, a FOY, briefly nectared on a potted Geranium. Cabbage White count is the highest by far this year. Most days have produced less than 5 individuals.

Female monarch was laying eggs on common milkweed

Both Monarchs were ovipositing on Common Milkweed. We also saw a Hummingbird Clearwing moth on Wild Bergamot.

Mostly cloudy and very wet. This section of the trail is wooded in most areas. It has a several patches of Stinging and Wood Nettle. The sun finally came out just as we were heading to the car.

Most of the Milkweed has faded. Purple Cone Flowers, Gloriosa and Bee Balm starting to bloom.

Later in the evening I checked one of the flaps on the Hog Peanut and found a Silver-spotted Skipper caterpillar. Nearby on a Big-toothed Aspen Sapling I found a Brother Moth caterpillar and as I looked down on the same branch a mature Red-spotted Purple caterpillar in the same spot on found one in a previous year.

5:15pm partial sun and hot

5pm… still bright out and hot.

3:30 - 5: 00

Activity on Zinnia and Black-eyed Susan.

There was pearl crescents everywhere

1300 to 1420. Searched a forested section of the Park for Anglewings and other butterflies associated with woodlands. Very little activity, most likely due to a dearth of nectar.

8:45-2:00, early clouds then mostly sunny, 73-91°. Mainly Dagmar Dale Trail, north and south loops - our territory on the Wallkill 4JC.

Mostly sunny day, highs around 90. Observations made after ~3:00. First Horace’s we’ve seen anywhere this year; very fresh.

Observations from 11am-1:30pm. I began in Alexander's Meadow and on the western trail by the roped off path to the sugar shack came across a Northern Pearly-Eye. I could not find any entries in the sightings log for Northern Pearly-Eye for Somerset County, so I gather this is somewhat significant. I decided to try for a four Satyr day and headed back to Woodpecker Swamp for Appalachian Brown. This habitat is one we had picked out on the Great Swamp count as possibly holding Black Dash and Dion Skipper. I had visited this habitat a couple of times since the count with no luck, but today one head of Swamp Milkweed did have a Black Dash. I spent more time looking around that habitat and there seems to be a fairly healthy colony of Black Dash. I noted at least 8 individuals and given the small percentage of habitat I covered I bet there could be a few more. Mulberry Wing, which I also think is a notable Somerset County sighting was flying in this same area and nectaring on Buttonbush. I did not have a chance to photograph it. Lots of Wood-Nymphs today.

Black Dash was a big surprise at this apparently very dry place, however Marge found wet-land about 20 yards away.

Part of NABA Raritan Canal count, 2:30pm- 4:30pm, mostly cloudy

Part of NABA Raritan Canal Count, 11:15am–1:15pm, partly cloudy

Part of NABA Raritan Canal Count, 9:15-11:00am

Sunny, very warm all day. Nice to see grass-skippers picking up a bit. This year we planted the 'Meteor Shower' variety of Purpletop Vervain (Verbena bonariensis), and the skippers are all over it.

1:50-3:00, sunny, 86°. Very gratifying to see TWO Coral hairstreaks in our neighborhood. Most species nectaring on Indianhemp.

10:00-11:45, sunny, 73-78°. Area near the dam and around the white barn near Hendershot's Point. The area high on the slope above the dam where N. Metalmark was last recorded in 2005 is now completely overgrown with alien shrubs and stilt grass, though patches of the ragwort hostplant remain.

I found my first Monarch caterpillar at night on Common Milkweed as well as 3 Nessus Sphinx caterpillars feeding on the Grapevine. Nessus Sphinx is a new species to breed in the garden.

A Silver-spotted Skipper was seen ovipositing on Black Locust.

1:00 to 3:00. Mostly sunny, temps in upper 70s. Only worked the grassy roadside along Limecrest Road north of Lake Aeroflex parking lot. Most of the skippers, including the Hoary Edge, were nectaring on Wild Basil.

10-10-11-40. Sunny
One dark form Tiger Swallowtail

10:40-12:30, 72-79 degrees, mostly sunny
post-agricultural fields loaded with Common Milkweed, some patches adjacent to oak-hickory-walnut woods and other patches adjacent to herbaceous wetlands. Twenty species and 125 individuals. Better than it has been but still pretty poor.

Partly Cloudy, Temp in low 70s, 9:15 - 10:15 AM

first Sachem male and female

10:00 AM 1:00 PM 80°­ -85°

11:00 to 2:00. Clouds and sun; windy with temps in 80s.

1:45-3:15, sunny, mid-80s. This is not the White Lake site.

1:15pm-1:40pm, 85F, clouds and sun

Sunny day in the 80s.

11:15am-12:45pm, clouds and sun, breezy, 83F
Delaware Skipper is a new county record for our database.

10:15am-11:00am, mostly sunny, 75F

Leaderless Walks field trip

1:40 pm to 2:40 pm - more clouds than sun - very warm.

An Essex County Master Gardener called the RU MG Helpline office this morning, with a photo of caterpillar on the cannas at the above mentioned garden. After looking up information it appears to be the larva of the Brazilian Skipper. There are at least 4 caterpillars and perhaps eggs at this cannas garden! They will do a complete check of their plants.

[Moderator]: Very unusual this far north. Upon checking with the gardeners, for more than 5 years the canna rhizomes have been dug up in the fall and replanted in the spring. No new cannas have been purchased during that time. Therefore, since Brazilian Skippers are strong fliers with a definite tendency to immigrate north, it's very possible that the caterpillars developed as a natural occurrence from eggs laid by a gravid female. Already this year two Brazilian Skippers have been seen in Cape May County and one in Cumberland County. Check your cannas!

1145 to 1300; sunny, 90 degrees, humidity 42%; very slight breeze. Given the peak condition of several acres of Milkweed, the farm's 36 acres of pasture and hay, as well as the large number of Oaks, Black Cherries, Locusts, and other host plants in the area, the paucity of butterflies is puzzling.

2:45-3:15, sunny, 85°. We were checking the area opposite the office where Com. Checkered-Skippers were found in 2017. None this time, but we were 10 days earlier, and did not see any of the Velvetleaf that was probably being used as a host plant last year.

11:05-11:45, sunny, low 80s. Meadow south of the access drive only.

9:40-11:00, sunny, upper 70s.

I'm starting to see little Silver-spotted flaps on the Hog Peanut vines.

11:30 to 2:30. Sunny, breezy, mid-80s.

9:45-10:30, sunny, 76 deg. Field on Rt. 206 opposite #122, with unmarked dirt access road. Virtually all the Baltimores were on Canada Thistle.

Sunny, low 80's, moderate humidity. Milkweed past peak in fields. 1230 to 1345. 1410 to 1430 Swampy wooded area east of Village. I saw a possible Appalachian Brown at the second site, but I could not get a good enough look to confirm it.

Brief visit

Brief visit

10 AM - 1 PM. Hot and sunny. Most butterflies on Spreading dogbane on west side of pavilion.

1:30pm-3:30pm, 85F, full sun

10:30am-3:30pm. Spent time in both the south and north section. The commas were seen in sunny gaps along the road in the wooded parts and along the rocky stream on the paved road in the southern section. I took a few horrible photos of the commas to confirm the identification. The Juniper Hairstreaks were very fresh, but stayed hidden within their namesake. A few unided duskywing species that never landed.