V. cardui migration

[Mothman617]

I saw a very large number of Vanessa cardui in Boxford, Essex Co. Mass.
today, Apr 8, 2000. I usually do not see these until later in the spring. It
was quite warm today, in the mid 70's with a very strong southwest wind,
likely due to the big storm blasting off to the west and north of us. I hear
that you folks in the northern mid-west are digging out of major snowstorm
and you folks in the south must be headed to the tornado shelters. Too bad
we will miss both the snow and the tornados here. I was curious of any other
reports of V. cardui in the northeast. I saw a large number of other species
today as well listed below. It has been many years since I have seen this
large a diversity of species so early in the season.

Pieris rapae (4)
Colias philodice (1) first of season
Nymphalis antiopa (3)
N. j-albumi (1)
Vanessa atalanta (1)
Incisalia henrici (1) first of season - unusually early
Polygonia comma (2)
Brephos infans (1) dayflying moth (Noctuidae)