8/22/25 - 8/30/25 - Cloudy days, miscellaneous wandering

[Paul Seaman]

It's felt like a slower week butterfly-wise, with on + off cloudy weather and rain making it feel more like the start of fall than the end of summer. I just finished moving from the Berkshires this week, which gave me a chance to explore a bit in the meantime. Here's what I saw along the way:

8/22/25 - Martin Burns WMA, Newbury

(2 hours, 15 min around the road + railroad bed)

Eastern Tailed-Blue 4x

Gray Hairstreak 2x

Common Wood Nymph 1x

Pearl Crescent 1x

8/22/25 - Topsfield Fairgrounds, Topsfield

(10 min around the parking lot, mainly to search for shorebirds)

Clouded Sulphur 5x

Orange Sulphur 3x

8/25/25 - Great Meadows NWR, Concord

(1 hour, 30 min, a cloudy day and then a quick rain shower)

Eastern Tailed-Blue 7x

Least Skipper 2x

8/25/25 - Wachusett Meadow, Princeton

(~1 hour in the evening)

Pearl Crescent 2x

Monarch 2x

8/27/25 - October Mountain SF - Washington

(6 hours, 30 min mostly birding, a cloudy day w/ on + off rain)

Common Ringlet 16x

Mourning Cloak 2x

Pearl Crescent 5x

Clouded Sulphur 5x

White Admiral 1x

Red-Spotted Purple 1x

Eastern Tailed-Blue 1x

Monarch 1x

Viceroy 1x

8/29/25 - Savoy Mountain SF, Savoy

(1 hour on Adams Rd, cloudy the whole way and then raining heavily)

Pearl Crescent 1x

Monarch 3x (all caterpillars)

8/30/25 - Sheep Hill, Williamstown

(1 hour, late afternoon walk around the field)

Orange Sulphur 1x

Cabbage White 2x

Viceroy 1x

Common Ringlet 1x