21 September 2021
Yesterday was the last really hot day before tomorrow’s storms and a return to cooler temperatures. We found many active insects, including mosquitoes!, as we looked for birds at State Game Land 63 in Clarion County yesterday morning.
Above and below, an apparently pregnant praying mantis looks for a place to lay her eggs.
Many monarchs flew by on their way south. Will they reach Pittsburgh before the storms?
And a field of grass and goldenrod was a-flutter with small orange butterflies. (I think one may be a pearl crescent. Can you identify these two?)
Bugs are having their last big fling.
(photos by Kate St. John and Donna Foyle)
We were at the Allegheny Land Trust’s Churchill Greenway (old Churchill Valley CC) with the little grandkids on Sunday morning. We saw numerous monarch butterflies. There’s a good growth of milkweed at that site so it was great to see. There were a variety of other smaller butterflies too but because we had a 2 YO and 5 YO charging up the old cart paths I got no photos. The 5 YO loved the butterflies, flowers, grasshoppers and ducking under some huge hemlocks in a “tree cave.”
I’d say Pearl Crescent for both of them — one a female and the other a male. The “crescent” refers to a tiny silver crescent on the lower hind wing. It takes a close look and from the correct angle to see this delightful little mark.
Hi Kate,
The one butterfly is a Meadow Fritillary. The other looks like a Pearl Crescent but I can’t see it well.
Thank you. I learned a new butterfly.
Yep, Meadow Fritillary for the one, Mike. Sorry Kate and all.