August 2020 Sightings

Lots of plants in bloom, including Swamp Milkweed, Vervain, Mimulus and Purple Loosestrife. Monarchs mostly nectaring on Swamp Milkweed and Vervain.

Mostly sunny, high in upper 80s. One Tiger Swallowtail was a released female, from a caterpillar found in the yard on Black Cherry. A Spicebush was expected to emerge the same day, but instead we got a parasitoid wasp, likely Trogus pennator, which specializes in swallowtail caterpillars. But a Meadow Fritillary, rare to see in our garden, made up for the disappointment.

10:15am-5:00pm, mostly sunny, 80°F-88°F,
Ladies were all very fresh

11:40-12:45

Obs. made from 12:45-2:30, 87 degrees & part sun. Wild Bergamot drawing in nice numbers of Swallowtails.

9:30-11:00. Walked the loop at the northern part of the property. The trail map on the N j Trails website shows this area to be a mix of forrest and fields, but I found the “fields” to be a mixture of woods, forrest and, for variety, areas with lots of trees. Finally found one smallish opening with blooming bergamot. All the action was there, a swallowtail mass gathering with no social distancing observed.

Obs. made from 2:45-4:20, 87 & part sun. Three of the Eastern Tigers were dark form females.

10:15-11:15 AM; sunny and ca 80 degrees. Big patch of Clethra blooming, lots of Purple loosestrife, but mint patch paltry.

9-11 am. Not much in bloom right now.

11:30 AM-12:40 PM. Sun, increasing clouds, mid-80's. Nectar sources and butterflies sparse. 1 Duskywing sp.

Hot sun; High 80s; 10:10–11:25 AM

Obs. made from 8:30-11:50 a.m. Temp. range 71-84 & sunny. Most of these sightings came from the northern end of Canal Rd. NY Ironweed, Swamp Milkweed, Joe pye weed, Mountain mint, and purple loosestrife the primary nectar sources today. Grass skippers hard to come by as well as most Nymphalids.

Final stop before heading back south. Obs. made from 4:50-6 p.m., still mid 80,s and part sun. Again as in KVSP, 3 Tigers were dark form females. Explored 4 locations this day and was fortunate to find Giant Swallowtails at each of them.

445-7pm
hairstreaks and app browns on boardwalk. 1 hairstreak in the garden.

Early AM. Very cloudy. One Monarch caterpillar in addition to the adult butterflies.

5:05-5:45 PM. Mostly Sunny at 5:05; mostly cloudy by 5:45.

6:00-6:30 PM. Cloudy

1:55-3:40, mostly sunny, 82-86. Fields and parking areas along Janes Chapel Rd. Most fields have abundant Wild Bergamot. Quite a few dark swallowtails were too distant to ID.

9:45-10:50, sunny, 82.

3-5 pm. Sunny to partly cloudy but due to time of day many areas in shade, which the hairstreaks seemed to prefer. A dedicated Red-banded Hairstreak survey following the earlier count of 19. That count was on only one section of trail, so I wanted to do a full survey throughout the meadows. Even with the dedicated effort I was quite surprised by the result. I saw none nectaring.

There has been a nice variety of butterflies in the garden the past few days. I think I had a flyby American Snout as well. It didn't land. I did have a caterpillar on my Hackberry sapling last year. Maybe I will get lucky again.

Thistles, Bee balm, various mints, composites and Loosestrife are doing much better than Buddleia and Joe Pye this year.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are congregated on Cup Plant. Tawny-edged Skipper is a yard first. Unidentified sulphur laying eggs on Senna marilandica. Question Mark laying eggs on Common Hackberry.

11:30 to 3:00. Sunny; temps in mid-80s. The bulk of the Tiger Swallowtails were in the fields off the upper left parking lot in main park section, and the fields at the end of Cherry Street. In both cases swallowtails were hungrily swarming on Monarda and Blazing Star. I've never seen so many dark Tiger females; a conservative estimate would be between 15 & 20% of all Tigers counted.

5-6pm, after the storm
most butterflies on Joe Pye weeds…
Wild Indigo on a garden hose

The copper and the emperor were pristine indicating a very recent emergence of the second brood. At least 13 Tiger Swallowtails and the lone Red-spotted Purple were avidly nectaring in a small patch of teasel (Genus Dipsacus).

Considering the weather and the abundance of flowers in bloom, there was very little activity. The sleepy oranges were tough to track today and stayed mostly to the tall grass. 4:30-6:00 hot and sunny.

Obs made between Owens Station Rd & south pool of the Liberty Marsh; surprising lack of skippers and damselflies.

9:30-10:30 am
Avis Campbell Garden (a small but lovely garden by the Montclair Public Library maintained by the Montclair Garden Club).
My first ever Pipevine Swallowtail (the 6th swallowtail sp. and the 58th species overall) in Montclair Township.