Westport butterflies

ButterflyPR at comcast.net ButterflyPR at comcast.net
Sat Aug 9 16:26:41 EDT 2003


Got really lucky this morning--while visiting my mother in Westport, we 
actually had a few hours of decent weather!  While in and around the 
swimming pool, we saw four Tiger Swallowtails, a dozen or so Cabbage 
Whites, a Monarch (my first definite sighting of the season), and what at 
first I thought were a few skippers.  When they landed on the privet hedge, 
I realized they were hairstreaks, in various stages of disrepair, one 
extremely ragged, one with tails still evident, one in fairly good shape, with 
a visible orange crescent.  Based on parallel markings on the wings, sort 
of =, my best guess is Hickory Hairstreaks.  As I watched, one just sat on 
a leaf rubbing its hindwings together--trying to attract someone?  Also, on 
the buddleia, a quick glimpse of something small and light, either an 
Eastern Tailed Blue (possibly with tails missing) or an Azure.  There 
seemed to be a Red Spotted Purple at the top of a bush, and a black 
swallowtail--I couldn't tell if it was a Black or Spicebush--it didn't look as 
bad as the lep Rich just sent out, but it seemed to be flying with three 
wings!

Driving home, more Cabbage Whites along the sides of the roads, a few 
Tiger Swallowtails crossing the highway, one Monarch crossing the 
highway in North Branford.

Diane Adams
Chester, Westport, and "the road"


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