August 11, 2021

Zabulon Skipper - Female

Notes and Changes since last report

• It was 85°F, partly cloudy and humid, but breezy at 2:00 PM on August 11, 2021.
• Several infrequent butterfly visitors were here today.
• Signs of late summer were appearing.
• This week's trail report covers the Wappinger Creek Trail side of the trail system.

The Trails

• The dirt road to Gifford Carriage House was still damp from morning rains.
• Clouded and orange sulphurs were "puddling" together. Note the broader dark margin of the orange sulphur in the middle.
• A very nervous tawny-edged skipper kept darting back into the grass.
• Unusually small eastern tailed-blues were about, and of course pearl crescents.
• Across the front Old Hayfield, goldenrod was brightening while wild bergamot was starting to wane.
• A fresh looking Zabulon skipper was sunning in the back corner.
• Too big for a pearl crescent, too small for a great spangled frit, a meadow fritillary settled on goldenrod.
• The underside is distinctive.
• Intermediate dogbane pods were appearing as flowers were becoming fewer.
• Swallowtails were easy to spot from any vantage point.
• The male does not have as much blue as the female eastern tiger swallowtail.
• The female Zabulon skipper looks nothing like the male.
• At the corner of the Sedge Meadow Trail, the hickory was starting to drop nuts.
• That trail was lined with gray dogwood with ripening berries.
• Always welcoming, the shade over the boardwalk was life giving today.
• Overhead, a familiar "chip-burrr" was traced to a scarlet tanager starting to molt off his summer breeding plumage.
• Near the window into the Sedge Meadow, a very well worn Appalachian brown flew around me and perched in the sun.
• Through the window, all was quiet; purple loosestrife was still going strong.
• At the exit into the back Old Hayfield, a great spangled fritillary was just hanging out in the shade.
• And another female Zabulon skipper appeared. The female Hobomok skipper occasionally has a very similar dark form, but lacking the white hindwing apex.
• Wild bergamot was still looking good in the back Old Hayfield.
• A galium sphinx actually landed. These have't been around much.
• It's worth checking every spicebush swallowtail: yellow on the hindwing makes this one a black swallowtail. Thin yellow and thick blue indicate it's female.
• And below there is an extra orange spot; spicebush is missing one...
• A viceroy must have survived a bird attack. But it looks like a monarch, and monarchs taste bad. Maybe birds have to learn.
• The Wappinger Creek looked and sounded full.
• Along the lower section of the trail, sun played across the water.
• Trout were gathering in that sunny soit.
• One was a monster - the smaller ones seemed to be keeping their distance...
• Back on the bank, a broken sycamore had a shelf fungus forming at its base.
• This looked like the type of fungus that was always there before.
• Puffballs grow so quickly, we'll try to find them next week.
• Next week: the Cary Pines Trail side of the trail system.

Sightings