Coastal Virginia Wildlife Observatory. My locations are Kiptopeke State Park and Eastern Shore of VA NWR. I'll be out in the field from daylight until dusk from September 11 until October 28, 2005. If you would like to know how the hawk watch is doing you can find the daily tallies at www.hawkcount.org and look for Kiptopeke State Park.
Day One September 11, 2005:
Larry Brindza and I met at the Eastern Shore of VA NWR Visitor Center
around noon. The day was a bit windy and most of the butterfly activity
was limited for some reason.
One Broad-winged Skipper proved to be challenging to ID. At first I thought
it was a rare Brazilian Skipper, but later the enlarged photos proved
it to be a very brown and poorly marked Broad-winged Skipper.
Late in the day we found a Carolina Mantis and photographed it. Shortly
afterward we found a Chinese Mantis laying eggs and creating it's egg
casing, the photos were amazing.
We checked the known Monarch roosts and found a good number of Gray Hairstreaks
in the trees chasing each other and Painted Ladies. No Monarchs were found
in the roosts.
Here's the butterfly list for the day:
Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) 15
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) 4
Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus) 1
Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) 2
Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) 25
Gray Hairstreak (Strymon melinus) 15
Red-banded Hairstreak (Calycopis cecrops) 2
Summer Spring Azure (Celastrina neglecta)
American Snout (Libytheana carinenta) 5
Variegated Fritillary (Euptoieta claudia) 3
Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) 5
Polygonia spp 1
American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) 2
Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui) 35
Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia) 25
Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax) 5
Tawny Emperor (Asterocampa clyton) 4
Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala) 2
Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus) 50
Horace's Duskywing (Erynnis horatius) 1
Clouded Skipper (Lerema accius) 2
Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) 3
Sachem (Atalopedes campestris) 5
Zabulon Skipper (Poanes zabulon) 1
Aaron's Skipper (Poanes aaroni) 1
Broad-winged Skipper (Poanes viator) 3
Dun Skipper (Euphyes vestris) 1
Salt Marsh Skipper (Panoquina panoquin) 3
Ocola Skipper (Panoquina ocola) 1
No Monarchs were found!
The first Monarch we tagged on the Eastern Shore of VA in 2005, it was found and tagged actually on day two.
This is a Monarch that I failed to catch in my net on day three at the Kiptopeke SP butterfly garden. I have much better photos of Monarchs on my Butterflies of North Carolina pages.
This is a Monarch fourth or fifth instar caterpillar I found at the Eastern Shore of VA NWR in the butterfly garden on Asclepias tuberosa.
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