Appleton Farms 10/5/2018

[Howard Hoople]

I took another look at Appleton Farms today (Friday), hoping to be able to add a Silver-bordered Fritillary to the October derby. While we had four of them last Saturday, I didn’t see any today.

When I arrived at Appleton Farms in Ipswich at 11 am, it was partly sunny,  55 degrees and windy, so I wasn’t optimistic. But I checked a large patch of purple asters near the parking area, and in the first ten minutes I was there found a male Bronze Copper:  https://flic.kr/p/MZqGca and https://flic.kr/p/PBrV9Y . That was fun because while so far this season I’ve seen Bronze Coppers there twice, both times they were all females.

Other butterflies seen there included:

10+ Cabbage Whites

10+ Clouded Sulphurs

10+ Orange Sulphurs

10+ Crescents (badly worn, probably mostly/all Pearl Crescents)

All were actively moving about in spite of the cool temps and wind.

Howard