Lots of butterflies by the Environment Center today, including Viceroy, Monarch, Black Swallowtail, Red Admiral, Pearl Crescent, Common Buckeye, Wild Indigo Duskywing, Broad-winged Skipper, Silver-spotted Skipper, Peck's Skipper, Cabbage White and Orange Sulphur. Also had our buddy, the Snowberry Clear-winged Moth.
Should be a great weekend for birds and butterflies at DeKorte.
New Jersey Meadowlands Commission staffer Jim Wright wrote about the Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz Butterfly Garden in this week's edition of the South Bergenite,
Full story follows.
We will be doing butterfly counts at DeKorte Park from time to time this
summer as schedules allow, using a new digital DeKorte Butterfly Count Sheet that the public is free to download and use.
After our noon Marsh Discovery Trail Walk today, we counted 11 species of butterflies -- including an American Lady (above) and Viceroy (right) -- plus a Snowberry Clear-winged Moth.
Download the list here:
Download DeKorte Butterfly Count Sheet
Full list and Snowberry Clearwing photo follow.
Continue reading "DeKorte Butterflies 062910 -- 11 Species" »
Can anyone ID this? Taken last Friday in a flower bed in a DeKorte parking lot.
Just saw our first of the year Mourning Cloak in the DeKorte's Lyndhurst Nature Reserve. This cloak looks like something out of the Salvation Army store, but still nice to see.
By the way, according to the North American Butterfly Association Checklist for DeKorte, this butterfly is due to appear around... mid-April.
Checklist is here.
More on Mourning Cloaks here.
By the way, have you heard that a new free Butterflies of DeKorte Park pamphlet is in the works? We hope to have it ready later this spring.
We got our first Great Spangled Fritillary of the summer at DeKorte at 1:30 p.m. today, at the Jill Ann Zimkiewicz Memorial Butterfly Garden.
Last year we didn't get out first one until late August -- and it was news. Click here for details.
Too bad it wasn't here on Sunday for the butterfly walk.
Tomorrow: Full report on the butterfly walk, with a great pic of a Painted Lady.
Sunday's Butterfly Walk at DeKorte Park, sponsored by the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society, was by all accounts a great success.
We had beautiful weather and a great turnout -- roughly 75 people and 15 species of butterflies, including the Viceroy pictured at left. (Photo courtesy of Deedee Burnside.)
As one experienced butterfly aficionado reported: "It was the most
butterflies I've seen in one spot yet this year."
Click "Continue reading..." for a photo of a Broadwing Skipper and a full list.
We had a hummingbird moth at DeKorte by the Environment Center on Friday around lunchtime. Let's hope he shows up for the Butterfly Walk on Sunday (between 1 and 2:30 p.m.)!
As we get ready for our butterfly walk on Sunday, we'd like to take a moment to honor Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz, in whose memory the butterfly garden outside the Environment Center in DeKorte is named.
Jill Ann Ziemkiewicz of Rutherford died on July 17, 1996. She was 23, and the youngest flight attendant on TWA Flight800, which crashed into the ocean off Long Island.
The garden is designed around a sunflower-shaped fountain, is filled with colorful flowers that attract butterflies from late spring into autumn.
The New York Times article on her memorial service at St. Patrick's Cathedral is here.
We saw this awesome caterpillar last week near the Carillon on Disposal Road.
Click "Continue reading ..." for a close-up, a shot of its host plant and what kind of butterfly (we hope) it will become one day.
We took this near DeKorte Park's World Trade Center Memorial Cove on Monday.
The butterfly is a Silver-spotted Skipper.
The bush is a Virginia Sweetspire.
We are hoping to post butterfly sightings frequently this summer. Let us know what you are seeing in the Meadowlands -- when and where -- and send us your digital images if you can!
On Sunday, July 19, the Meadowlands Commission and the Bergen County Audubon Society are sponsoring "Butterflies for
Beginners," offered free to anyone interested in learning how to identify the butterflies of the Meadowlands.
Optics for butterflies and backyard butterfly gardens will be discussed, followed by a short walk. Butterfly aficionados of all levels are welcome.
The event is from 1 to 2:30 p.m. at the Jill Ann Zimkiewicz Memorial Butterfly Garden in front of the Meadowlands Environment Center in DeKorte Park, Lyndhurst.
To RSVP or get more information, contact Jim Wright of the NJMC here, or call 201-460-2002.
Click here to see photos of some of the many types of butterflies that can be seen in DeKorte Park and environs.
