Cape May Point State Park ~ Butterflies & Moths

On Tuesday, I met up with the North Jersey Butterfly Club along with 2 South Jersey butterfliers, Jack M & Teresa K.  It's so good to see everyone again.  Some of the NJ group had been to my yard one or more times prior to my selling the house and saw their lifer, Brazilian Skipper, in my yard.  I had to leave for an appt but came back for the afternoon which saw us taking a walk on the trails looking for butters and caterpillars alonh with other interesting bugs & birds we could fine.  It was a fun afternoon.  We split up at about 3PM and I went back  to walk the trails again.  My pictures are below with ID's underneath them.

White M Hairstreak

White M Hairstreak

Ocola

Fiery

Silver-spotted nest

Silver-spotted Caterpillar

Salt Marsh Moth (I think)

North American Luna Moth caterpillar

Stinging Rose caterpillar

North Cape May ~ My Former Butterfly Gardens

 It's so true - You can never go go back... I was invited to go back to my former home in NJ to view the butterflies. I saw 2 good southern strays, a Long-tailed and a Fiery skipper. Along with those butterflies I saw 4 Monarchs, 6 Common Buckeye, a Black Swallowtail and lots of Sachem. But I'd estimate between 30 and 40% of the gardens are gone in just 2 summers. They used black mulch and (I guess) mulched the self seeding plants under - Partridge Pea, Verbena bonariensis among others. There is no swamp milkweed left when there had been 7 large stands of it, Purple milkweed gone, all cone flowers gone, Spicebush tree dead and hackberry tree cut down. The back is just a disaster and it was sad. I saw many mulberry seedlings, several of which are already 3ft high. Sounds crazy but I'd rather see grass than piles of black mulch.

Long-tailed Skipper

Long-tailed Skipper

Fiery Skipper

Common Buckeye

Common Buckeye

Monarch

Sachem

National Jelly Roll Day

 So, I chose a Riley Blake fabric jelly roll for my National Jelly Roll day quilt on Saturday, 9/16. Then, I chose a pattern that looked good in the a quilt I found online. I must say, the top is not to my liking. It would been be better with all blocks separated by lattices but it is colorful. The next 2 quilts shown used 5" precut reproduction strips of fabric (which were not all cut at 5"). I like those tops the better. These 2 tops were made over the past week with one finished today. Now, into the UFO pile until I have time to get them quilted.

Around the Yard ~ Birds, Butterflies & Bugs

Pink Southern Moth that feeds on the calyx of Saliva's 

Painted Lady

Variegated Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Snowberry Clearwing Moth

Peck's

Eastern Wood-Pewee

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Peck's

Silver-spotted

Peck's

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

 

My Yard ~ Giant Swallowtail

 Wow, wow, Wow! I am excited! My eyes spied a worn Eastern Giant Swallowtail this afternoon while I was out working in the garden. I ran inside to get my camera. It's still here and is a female. I have rue, so it would be great if she's fertile and lays some eggs. New yard butterfly #36 and #31st species for 2023.

Giant Swallowtail

Giant swallowtail ~ Female

Sachem

Meadow Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Ruby-throated Hummingbird

Black Swallowtail

Ruby-throated Hummingbird ~ Male

Snowberry Clearwing

My Yard ~ First of the Year Butterflies

 Over the past 5 days I have seen 2 more FOY butterflies here in the yard.  This brings the butterfly count up to #30 for 2023.  Last year I had 33 species in total.  I still have 4 species of skippers that haven't shown up yet or I just haven't noticed them.  There are Sachems and Zabulon skippers flying everywhere.  I am not inspired to pick through them to see if the missing skippers are in their midst.  I also haven't had either Question Mark or Mourning Cloak yet but they didn't arrive in the yard until almost the end of October.

Painted Lady ~ #29 2023 butterfly ~ 8/27/2023

Common Checkered-skipper ~ #30 2023 butterfly ~ 9/2/2023

My yard ~ Monarch Caterpillars

Lots of Monarch Caterpillars in the yard right now.  I counted over 15 on the Swamp Milkweed in the front yard and several in the back yard.