A few butterflies

[Linda G.]

Wellington Fields in Waltham, on Trapelo Road, is a newly established habitat.  Stewards for the Waltham Land Trust and one of the City's park rangers, have done an amazing job of restoring this to a native meadow—it’s still a work in progress but it’s something like 60-70% native now.  I spent a little time there yesterday looking for insects, and this morning when I did a bug program—the first public program held there.  This field is loaded with insects!  If you live near Waltham, check it out. 

In addition to seeing a very cool robber fly, here are the few butterflies I am able to report:

Friday Sept. 5 

1 Great Spangled Fritillary

2 hairstreaks - unidentified

Saturday Sept. 6

1 Red-banded Hairstreak

1 Clouded Sulphur

2-3 cabbage whites

Linda Graetz

Waltham

PS If you're interested in the fly:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/311995273

[Wendy Howes]

We're still not seeing very many butterflies, but here are some that showed up for us:

9/11, Ware

4 Great Spangled Fritillary

2 Monarch

2 Little wood Satyr

9/12, Hardwick (home)

4 Great Spangled Fritillary, very worn

3 Cabbage White

2 Monarch

Although we found no caterpillars on either of my spicebushes (and we did have several Spicebush Swallowtails in the yard earlier in the season), we found 6-8 on sassafras growing on a soon-to-be-mowed local roadside. I cut plenty of sassafras and brought the cats to my enclosure at home, and four have pupated so far. 

9/12, Hardwick (Muddy Brook WMA)

1 Cabbage White

1 Clouded Sulphur

6 Monarch

Wendy Howes & Alan Rawle

Hardwick