Whately butterflies, 8/5/18

[bil...@aol.com]

A really good butterfly day in the garden today, while doing yard work and during breaks from housecleaning, including some first sightings in the yard for the year.  Lots of work with the saturnid moth caterpillars today too--some of them are transforming into pupa, thankfully, but the rest are at their biggest and hungriest, which mean a lot of moving bags around for new leaves.  But I have had success with rearing some things on trees I'd never tried before--Cecropias on Apple, Lunas on Sumac, Polyphemus on Beech--so that's been fun.

The list:
Black Swallowtail  1 female late in the day
Giant Swallowtail  1 (at least;  seen various times throughout the day, always for only a few minutes at a time; likes Zinnias) (FOY)
E. Tiger Swallowtail  1
Spicebush Swallowtail  3  the swallowtail "hat trick" today;  we're holding out for Zebra!  We have 4 small PawPaw trees we planted, hoping....
Cabbage White  7
Clouded Sulphur  1
Summer Azure  3
Eastern Tailed-Blue  1  (FOY)
Great Spangled Fritillary  1  very worn
Pearl Crescent  23  by far the commonest butterfly in the yard;  they seem to be having a great second brood
White Admiral  1  a gorgeous fully banded one
Common Wood-Nymph  1
Monarch  1
Silver-spotted Skipper  3  numbers of these are dwindling, the ones left looking faded
Wild Indigo Duskywing  1  at least;  might have been a couple
Tawny-edged Skipper  1
Northern Broken-Dash  1
Zabulon Skipper  1  male, in the same wet sunny woodland edge area of the garden where we see them every August (FOY)
Dun Skipper  5

I also think I might have seen a Gray Hairstreak zipping around, but I didn't get a good enough look.  Too bad, because it would have also been a FOY for the yard, as well as brought the list up to an even 20 species.  But--no complaints!  It's a great year for the garden, and a great day for butterflies--and hummingbirds!  At one point, I had 21 hummingbirds in view at one time.  I don't think we've ever had quite so many before.

Enjoy,
Bill Benner
Whately, Franklin Co., MA
bil...@aol.com