flutterbys

Since my encounter with the Giant Swallowtail, I have had a number of communications about butterflies. Carl Safina reports an influx of Monarchs. Jean Held sent me a picture of another southerner, a Red-banded Hairstreak. As I sat by the pond this afternoon (hoping for hawks), I noticed an influx of Green Darner dragonflies hovering over the marsh and a steady stream of butterflies coming in from the water and flying up and over the trees -- a few Monarchs to be sure but mostly smaller insects. Eventually, I decided to try and follow the track of these butterflies which took them toward the house. Alas, most of them were overflying but a few stopped by at a stand of goldenrod -- not the Seaside Goldenrod, which is just starting to bloom, but one of the roadside varieties in a sunny spot just outside the porch. There, sitting on a golden spray along with a clutch of bees and wasps and several unidentifiable Skippers, was Jean's Red-banded Hairstreak! Yet another southerner expanding to the north!

It was another superb fall morning dominated again by Goldfinches and House Finches accompanied by House Wren, Common Yellowthroat, Great Crested Flycatcher, a few Chickadees and Titmice, Red-breasted Nuthatch and several Red-eyed Vireos. There were a fair number of swallows over Pine Neck -- hard to make out but I think they were Tree Swallows; the swallows over our side of the creek were all Banks.

There were hawks yesterday -- over Central Park! These were mostly Broad-winged Hawks which migrate in huge numbers in September but mostly inland; we hardly see any here on the South Shore (there are -- or were -- a few nesting pairs around but I've only seen one or two in migration in all these many years).

The photo is of Jean's Red-banded Hairstreak, Calycopis cecrops, virtually identical to the one that was here this afternoon (note the pattern of the red bands and the eyelets increasing in size (near the thread-like tails that account for the name 'hairstreak'), ending in a blue spot. Thank you, Jean, for alerting me to this charming little creature!

Eric Salzman