Polk City WA

There was a lot of activity at Polk City WA midday today.

I ended with 20 species of butterflies.

First, here are some pictures of a HACKBERRY EMPEROR:

Alongside the emperors were many RED-SPOTTED PURPLES:

Anglewings were out in force; here is a QUESTION MARK:

... and an EASTERN COMMA:

I was surprised to find some CHECKERED WHITES, not a species I see very often:

Besides the abundant Least Skippers, the only other skipper I saw was this FIERY SKIPPER:

My list of butterflies from the visit:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Giant Swallowtail - 2

Cabbage White

Checkered White - 3

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Bronze Copper

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Summer Azure

Great Spangled Fritillary

Question Mark

Eastern Comma

Red Admiral

Common Buckeye

Red-spotted Purple

Viceroy

Hackberry Emperor

Monarch

Fiery Skipper

Least Skipper

There was also a lot of dragonfly activity and I ended up with 13 species.  First up are the always-airborne PRINCE BASKETTAILS:

A highlight for me was finding this SPOT-WINGED GLIDER:

In summary, here are the dragonflies I tallied:

Jade Clubtail

Prince Baskettail

Common Whitetail

Twelve-spotted Skimmer

Widow Skimmer

Eastern Amberwing

Halloween Pennant

Eastern Pondhawk

Meadowhawk species

Red Saddlebags

Black Saddlebags

Wandering Glider

Spot-winged Glider

I never could stir up a BLUE DASHER until I got home and found some along the trail.

c.

July update

It's hard to believe that it's been more than a week since my last update on this blog!  Here is a July update.

First focusing on butterflies, a trip to Ledges State Park or two and other odds-and-ends around town have yielded about 26 species of butterflies this week.

Starting with skippers, DUN SKIPPERS are the most common plain-brown skipper in these parts:

Perhaps the easiest skipper to ID as well as one of the most eye-catching is the SILVER-SPOTTED SKIPPER.  These seem to be fairly common at this point in the season:

I hadn't seen a FIERY SKIPPER for quite a while this summer.  I finally broke that streak and spotted this one down the trail from my apartment here in Ames:

This dark and rather bland butterfly is a type of "spread-wing skipper".  More specifically, it's called a WILD INDIGO DUSKYWING:

Switching to sulphurs, I saw my first DAINTY SULPHUR of the summer:

As typical for these parts, SUMMER AZURES continue to be common.  Note the lack of orange tones which you would find on Eastern Tailed-Blues:

I was happy to spot this COMMON SNOUT sitting on a road.  This is typically a southern species that makes it up into Iowa in late-summer but as far as I know, is never abundant.  It uses Hackberry trees (Celtis sp) as the larval foodplant:

One of my favorite butterflies that I've learned here in Iowa is the bright BRONZE COPPER (see also the header at the top of this blog).  This one was down in Polk County:

You can't forget the swallowtails.  This EASTERN TIGER SWALLOWTAIL was down the trail from my apartment:

I also stumbled on some skippers that I can't ID, might it be a Crossline Skipper?  Or maybe a Northern Broken-Dash:

I don't even know where to begin with this one; it looks like it might be rather worn out or bleached:

So as far as I can remember, here is the list of butterflies from this week:

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Dainty Sulphur

Bronze Copper

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Summer Azure

Great Spangled Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary

Eastern Comma

Mourning Cloak

Red Admiral

Common Buckeye

Red-spotted Purple

Viceroy

American Snout

Monarch

Silver-spotted Skipper

Wild Indigo Duskywing

Common Sootywing

Fiery Skipper

Least Skipper

Dun Skipper

Northern Broken-Dash/Crossline Skipper

Now on to dragonflies....

I haven't seen much diversity this week mainly due to a lack of effort.  I still snapped some pictures here and there though.

WIDOW SKIMMERS continue as one of the most abundant species, sometimes even showing up in my yard:

This JADE CLUBTAIL only represents the second time I've found one of these on my own.  They are said to be the most common of the pond clubtails here in Iowa, however.

I'm still having a surprisingly difficult time with some of these meadowhawks; I'm thinking this is a RUBY MEADOWHAWK?  I don't see much color on the inner-wing, however.  Either way, it posed nicely: 

Believe it or not, this following species has a worldwide distribution!  It is appropriately named the WANDERING GLIDER.  I finally found my over-due lifer at Ledges State Park:

What do you do when you take a very crappy picture of a dragonfly?  Edit it (screw it up) until it looks artistic!  That's what I did with this PRINCE BASKETTAIL flying over my house:

This behemoth of a thing flew past me at Ledges.  I was hesitant even approaching it for photos.  Whatever it is, I'm glad I don't see them more often:

July doldrums

Thank goodness for bugs.  I'm serious.  It seems like the last thing I want to do these days is to look at a bird and good thing, considering it's July and not much seems to be happening.

Here are some recent butterfly pictures followed by a list of species I've seen in the last week or so.

First up is the flashy REGAL FRITILLARY.  I saw as many as 8 at Doolittle Prairie here in Story County.  The only issue is that they almost NEVER LAND.  Here is a blurry picture of one in flight:

There was another type of fritillary at Harrier Marsh.  This is the more-widespread GREAT SPANGLED FRITILLARY:

I actually found a lifer butterfly the other day at Doolittle Prairie (they already don't come as often as they used to).  It was overdue but fun nonetheless; a CORAL HAIRSTREAK:

I have been seeing COMMON BUCKEYES on most days out now:

Another species I've been seeing a lot of lately (including one in my yard) is the COMMON SOOTYWING:

This VICEROY perched nicely at Harrier Marsh:

I took a distant photo of this lady hoping it would be an American Lady (where are those things?) but alas, it was the more abundant PAINTED LADY:

I have saved the highlights for the end.  Both came recently at Harrier Marsh in Boone County.  First up is the local DION SKIPPER which was new for me.  I saw as many as 8 or 10 that day.  Here is the proof:

The other highlight was finding a male MELISSA BLUE.  This would represent the first Boone County record of this species:

Here are the recent sightings that come to mind (27 species):

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

Gray Copper

Bronze Copper

Coral Hairstreak

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Summer Azure

Melissa Blue

Great Spangled Fritillary

Regal Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary

Pearl Crescent

Gorgone Checkerspot

Question Mark

Mourning Cloak

Painted Lady

Common Buckeye

Red-spotted Purple

Viceroy

Hackberry Emperor

Monarch

Common Sootywing

Least Skipper

Dion Skipper

I've continued to keep an eye out for dragonflies that I can actually identify.  It really is a lot of fun; I'm glad I've started getting more serious about them.  Here are pictures of a couple of species followed by my list of recent dragonflies.

First up is a type of emerald (and the ONLY type I've seen), the PRINCE BASKETTAIL.  This one was actually flying over my yard:

Next is a PLAINS CLUBTAIL at Doolittle Prairie:

I have noticed an influx of meadowhawks at this point in the season.  Here are two pictures of male WHITE-FACED MEADOWHAWKS from Harrier Marsh:

I have yet to get a good picture of one of these guys.  This COMMON GREEN DARNER was actually hovering enough for me to get a blurry photo:

So an overall list of the dragonflies I've seen this week (15 species):

Common Green Darner
Plains Clubtail
Prince Baskettail
Common Whitetail
Twelve-spotted Skimmer
Widow Skimmer
Eastern Amberwing
Halloween Pennant
Dot-tailed Whiteface
Eastern Pondhawk
White-faced Meadowhawk
Ruby Meadowhawk
Band-winged Meadowhawk
Blue Dasher
Black Saddlebags

Hopefully I'll have more insect photos to share after another couple of days....