Middle Township Bike Path Butterflies

Monarch on Butterfly Weed

This is the first time I have walked the Middle Twp Bike Path but last year a friend was seeing Coral Hairstreaks along the path so when they were seen again this year I decided to take a look.  Sure enough I was lucky enough to find 2 of them which was a life butterfly for me. Then I also got good looks at a Rare Skipper which was another life butterfly.

Coral Hairstreak on Butterfly Weed ~ Life Butterfly

Coral Hairstreak - another view

Rare Skipper ~ Life Butterfly

Viceroy Butterfly

Spicebush Swallowtail Butterflies On Butterfly Weed

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Goshen ~ CMBO

Aaron's Skipper

Broad-winged Skipper

Salt Marsh Skipper

My Yard ~ Flowers

Agastache

Phlox

Coneflower

Agastache

Zinna

Zinna

My yard ~ Recent finds

Clearwing Hummingbird Moth

American Snout

NABA-North Jersey Butterfly Club ~ Great Purple Hairstreak

I am still so excited about seeing the Great Purple Hairstreak last Thursday in my yard .  To think if I had gone away as planned to KS & NE I never would have seen and gotten pictures of this butterfly. I was contacted by Jim S from the North Jersey NABA about including a picture of the butterfly I found in my yard in their information logs.  Here is the submission he wrote up:

NEW JERSEY BUTTERFLIES

Great Purple Hairstreak

Atlides halesus

Identification: Very large compared to other hairstreaks in our area. Slightly larger than Common Ringlet. Below: FW and HW very dark with red basal spots on both wings. Bright orange abdomen and white spots on body. Male has some iridescent blue underneath. Two sets of tails on each HW. Brilliant iridescent blue above seen while flying. Not easily confused with any other butterfly in NJ.

NJ Status and Distribution: Vagrant. Found throughout southern U.S.—closest colonies to NJ in southern Delmarva. Only one NJ record from southern Cape May County (6/15/17) in past century. Apparently, it was a resident in NJ before 1900.

Habitat: Moist woodlands.

Flight Period: March to November in VA.

Larval Food Plants: : Oak Mistletoe (Phoradendron leucarpum) which is still locally present in southern NJ.

Overwintering Stage: Pupa, but does not overwinter in NJ.

Best Locations: None, but most likely if found it will be in Cape May County.

Comments: A truly stunning butterfly. It is the only member of this tropical genus to make it into the US.

Copyright © 2017 NABA-North Jersey Butterfly Club

Cape May Point State Park ~ 3 Life Birds ~ Fork-tailed Flycatcher #439 & Northern Bobwhite #437

It was a great morning over at the state park which netted me good looks at 3 new life birds.  It's always fun to see new birds especially if you get to watch them moving around.  The flycatcher with the forked tail was an amazing sight as he flew back and forth from the trees to the fence.

Fork-tailed Flycatcher  Life Bird #439

Northern Bobwhite Life Bird #437

Villas, NJ ~ Cox Hall Creek WMA

Lots and lots of Little Wood Satyr's seen while on my walk

Swarthy Skipper seen on my walk.

My Yard ~ Great Purple Hairstreak

What a fun afternoon!  I have been working on my photography in small breaks of time trying to learn more about how to properly use the camera so that I can take better images.  I am using one of the "Dummies for Books."  I went outside with my camera to take some images in the garden when I saw a Great Purple Hairstreak.  I knew immediately what butterfly it was though I didn't realize they were that much larger than a Gray or Red-banded Hairstreak.  She was nectaring on some Coreopsis in the front garden.  I took some documentation shots and then ran into get my camera that had the macro lens on it plus called my sister, Jenny out to see it.  Fortunately, it was still there when we came out.  I took more images and we watched it for about 20 minutes until it flew off into the dunes across the street.  After that I went into find out if we had ever had a GPH on our SJ Butterfly Log.  I could find no entries so I emailed Jack C to let him know about the butterfly.  I sure am hoping that she'll return and hang out some more.

Happy Anniversary ~ 32 years in this house

It's been 32 years today since I have moved to this house in NJ with Russ.  Back then, I never imagined that I would be gardening here with my sister, planting flowers and also host plants for butterflies.  Here are some recent flower pictures with most from today.

Poppies

Common Mallow

Coneflower

Coneflower

Lantana

Purple Milkweed

Purple Milkweed Closeup

Blanket Flower ~ Arizona Sunrise

Blanket Flower

Swamp Milkweed

Recent Yard Butterflies

Zabulon Skipper ~ Male

Zabulon Skipper ~ Female

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

First Monarch Butterfly of 2017 seen

Question Mark Butterfly

Silver-spotted Skipper

Common Buckeye Butterfly

Eastern-tailed Blue Butterfly

Pearl Crescent Butterfly

Quilting

Three special girls are getting quilts this fall to celebrate the birth of Baby Jesus and to wait for Santa to visit them. Some of the blocks used were from a swap and many were made by me. Each is set up different and has different borders. Also need to make a special label for each of the quilts. Now to get the backs made and then to get them quilted.

Kori's

Finley's

Alyssa's

My Yard ~ Overwintered Black Swallowtail Butterfly & Black Swallowtail Instar

Black Swallowtail  Instar

This gorgeous Black Swallowtail Butterfly over wintered with 18 other BS chrysalis .  She eclosed this AM.