Guilford butterfly sightings
Epmanshell at aol.com
Epmanshell at aol.com
Sun Aug 16 08:37:42 EDT 2009
On Saturday, 8/15, I made a scouting trip to the sites in Guilford I will
be visiting on next week's CBA field trip.
The first stop, Jared Elliot Preserve was extremely quiet with very few
butterflies. This was due, at least in part, to the fact that the field was
recently mowed and there are very few flowers blooming at the site.
However, the fact that the site was recently mowed may not have made a difference
because only small numbers of butterflies were found on the blooming
flowers that remained. The list for the site is as follows:
Cabbage White (10)
Pearl Crescent (2)
Monarch (2)
Least Skipper (1)
Peck's Skipper (5)
Tawny-edged Skipper (2)
Zabulon Skipper (1)
Broad-winged Skipper (12) (A very low number for this species at a coastal
locality in August)
The second stop, Chaffinch Is. Park, proved to be more productive because
the heavy rains of 2009 helped the hackberry trees to flourish. The list
for that site is as follows:
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (1)
Spicebush Swallowtail (1)
Black Swallowtail (1)
Orange Sulphur (1)
American Snout (1) (My first of the year)
Question Mark (1)
Hackberry Emperor (1) (My first of the year)
Tawny Emperor (1) (My first of the year. This is the second consecutive
year this species has occurred at this site. Perhaps it has become a
temporary breeding resident rather than an immigrant.)
Monarch (2)
The Emperors were patrolling the hackberry trees along the western side of
the park, from the telephone pole hidden in the grove of trees south
through the area with the picnic tables. They were staying high in the hackberry
trees and not coming down near the ground.
If anyone wants to try for them, I suggest they wait until late morning or
the afternoon since these two species is not active first thing in the
morning and to look for butterflies perching in a sunny spot or dogfighting
high in the hackberries. The American Snout and the Question Mark also favor
the hackberries, but they tend to stay closer to the ground.
On the way home, I stopped at Van Wilgens Nursery on the North
Branford/Branford border. While the nursery was for the most part, quiet, I found the
following butterflies on the group Buddelia that are offered for sale:
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (1)
American Lady (2)
Monarch (1)
Least Skipper (1) (This is the first time I ever saw this species on
Buddleia. Normally, it stays in tall grass where it is resident.)
Tawny-edged Skipper (2)
Little Glassywing (1) (Very worn)
Sachem (1) (My first of the year. A worn male.)
Broad-winged Skipper (1)
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