September 2023 Sightings

High 70s and sunny. First Fiery Skipper to visit - nectaring on Joe Pye Weed. [Moderators: only the 2nd Fiery reported in North Jersey this year - and only 6 have showed up down south.]

This was our first outing here, and it turned out to be a great day. Sachems and Pearl Crescents were everywhere. A White M Hairstreak was beat up and on its final legs, having trouble staying upright, but showed off its bright blue dorsal surface when it was able to fly. We were thrilled to find two southerly species - two Ocola Skippers, located in different parts of the park, and later on a Long-tailed Skipper was the icing on the cake. The main nectar sources today were sizeable patches of Tickseed Sunflower along with a smattering of NY Ironweed. [Moderators: congrats to Greg and Jeanine on a fantastic day afield! First Long-tailed Skipper in NJ this year and first in North Jersey since 2019. This just in: The moderators just received a stinging rebuke from a concerned citizen to our statement that this was the first Long-tailed Skipper reported in NJ this year. Apparently single individuals were reported from two different sites in south Jersey. This error was entirely the fault of WW who unreservedly apologizes. It is our hope that this mea culpa will belay hate mail, death threats and the like.]

3:00PM-4:30PM. Sunny, breezy, 73°F.

8:50 AM - 1:15 PM. Sunny, breezy, temps when finished @80 degrees. Also one Polites sp. skipper.

Observations include 3 sulphurs too far to ID.

2 to 5 PM. Temps IN low 80’s. Many skippers active in both fields near the pond especially on Joe Pye Weed.

Rare for us this year :(

Pearl Crescents near every puddle; two Eastern Tigers were dark morph.

Quick roadside stop in the afternoon. Butterflies nectaring on a few last Canada Thistle flowers. Nice to see some decent numbers of Meadows after 2 very modest earlier broods.

It should be renamed Beaverhurst Swamp.

80 degrees, sunny, afternoon, following a very cool night with temps in the 50's. It was interesting to see how this affected the butterflies. There were fewer Pearl Crescents, but overall numbers were similar to a week ago. Great Spangled Fritillary was attracted to the thistle.

10:40AM - 1:10PM. Kudos to Greg and Jeanine.

12:50-2:50; 80-85; sunny, and very humid
Because Sharon is on the 10-day disabled list retroactive to our garden weed pulling marathon I was forced to press-gang Joe Burgiel, who unsuspectedley stopped by my house, into a hot and sweaty walk.

Both Leonard's Skippers were nectaring at a fairly large expanse of Slender Bush Clover (Lespedeza virginica)—a native plant of dry, sunny, sites. (Another sighting of a single Leonard's Skipper a hundred or so feet away was not counted but could have been a third individual.) We saw almost no butterflies at smaller clumps of this attractive bush clover providing more evidence of the value of mass plantings.
Several duskywings were bombing about as they annoyingly do but we managed to ID two of them as male Horace's. Another, smaller one, may have been a Wild Indigo but it never landed. We saw dozens of Wild Indigo (Baptisia tinctoria) and Crown Vetch host plants along our walk so Wild Indigo Duskywings ought to be present in numbers but this species has declined sharply in our area. Also saw a likely Crossline Skipper but naturally it took off before we could get our bins on it.

But the best observation was hearing an American Bittern pumping away a few times from an adjacent wetland.

Diversity low, but 100-300 Cloudless Sulphurs (hard to estimate), ubiquitous Sachems; slim pickings (singles or doubles) otherwise. One female sulphur full alba. [Moderators: As a New Yorker who doesn’t spend much time in Jersey Rick can be forgiven for his comment about low diversity and most species being represented by 1 or 2 individuals. Actually, 20 species is quite good in a year notable for low diversity. The seeding of former agricultural fields with Partridge Pea and Senna by the NJ Division of Fish & Wildlife has certainly paid dividends in the form of extraordinary numbers of Cloudless Sulphurs. But what has happened to the Little Yellows?]

1PM - 4PM. 90 degrees and sunny.
I checked the gardens and Helyar Woods, mainly the Red Trail and low-lying areas.
I didn’t see any Harvester caterpillars or chrysalises yet but I’ll check again in a week because some were laying eggs.

11AM - 2PM. Sunny and hot. Walked parts of Pleasant Plains Rd. and the east end of White Bridge Rd., drove the rest. The Horace's DW appeared to be ovipositing on a small scrubby Pin Oak. One additional grass-skipper, so faded I had no idea of an ID.

Hot. Shortened walk.

11:05AM -1:05PM. Interfered in Crab Spider meal of Sleepy Orange; later to find one other SO.

9:45 AM - 1 PM. Sun, increasing clouds, 76-92 F. BW Skipper looked fresh, in contrast to others seen recently. Sachems may be an undercount, as they were moving around a lot. Most nectaring on Purple Loosestrife, Tickseed Sunflower, and Grass-leafed Goldenrod …. sorry, Goldentop. {Moderators: Still not right, Mike - it's Flat-top Goldentop.]

11:45 for an hour. 85 degrees, sunny with some clouds. It was hot in the sun. After the Leaderless Walk at Kuser Bog, Mike and I went looking for butterflies. The Leonard’s Skippers were found throughout the location we were in. Some were docile enough to pose for multiple photos. A more thorough search may turn up more. [Moderators: A much more encouraging count of Leonard's than on the club field trip, which may have been a tad too early.]

10-10:30 AM, sunny, 78 F. [Moderators: The Sachem looks like what our fellow butterfliers down south call "golden" Sachem.]

4:25-5:55. Sunny and upper 80's. I walked several areas including the north-end sand and paved trails. Mainly Camphorweed in bloom. There were likely a lot more Sachems and American Coppers around and these are just approximate counts.

10:35 AM - 1 PM. Sunny, hot; when I returned to my car its thermometer read 100F. [Moderators: The mantis, suspiciously eying Mike, is probably a Chinese Mantis.]

10:20-11:20, 78-81, mostly sunny; lower fields
2:00-2:45, 87, mostly sunny; upper fields

If you visit this preserve be sure to check out the fenced sapling White Oak that is a progeny of the famous "Salem" Oak (see photo of sign). All 3 Crossline Skippers were a bit worn.

1:55-2:45, 82 and humid, full sun. The last brood of Pearl Crescents appears to be the largest of the year, at least in NW Jersey. Many appeared to have emerged after the passage of 3 T-storms the night before, as did Clouded Sulphurs here and elsewhere. A wide swath of herbaceous and woody vegetation (beyond the normal roadside mowing) was cut on both sides of a road in the WMA where the State Endangered Bronze Copper has been found in past years. All of the cutting was done in wetlands and was not part of any routine maintenance, as some of the shrubs were several years old. Some Bronze Copper hosts plants (docks) and nectar plants (goldenrods and asters) were cut although some are left standing. We can't think of a reason for this cutting and we do not know if it was done by the Hampton Twp. road dept. or NJ Fish & Wildlife but we intend to find out.

Sun and clouds, warm and humid. The very fresh female Fiery Skipper is our 48th yard species for 2023, and only the third one reported in North Jersey this year. Monarchs frequently nectar at goldenrods and asters in late summer and fall. But being large and heavy (for a butterfly) they prefer the larger and stouter species such as Showy Goldenrod (Solidago speciosa) and New England Aster (Aster novae-angliae), both of which are coming into bloom now in North Jersey. Most Silver-spotted Skippers look like they will soon cash in their chips, like the female here on our 'Jeana' Phlox.

2:20-5:40. Sunny and mid 80's. I walked the sand trails from the platform to the north end, L lot path, and area F road to the bay. Once again the Sachems were everywhere feeding on Camphorweed. Almost all of them were females. It was cool to see a Cloudless Sulphur all the way out on the north end on the beach. Also some nice looks at what I believe is an American Sand Wasp.

12:00 - 2:45. Mostly sunny; temps in low 80s.