First Captures of 2023

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58chevy
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First Captures of 2023

Post by 58chevy »

Today was the beginning of the 2023 collecting season for me. I was able to capture several falcate orangetips (Anthocharis midea), usually the first butterfly of the season in my area. Also flying were numerous question marks (Polygonia interrogationis), but they didn't allow me to get close enough to net them. The weather has been warm for a week and a half, so I expect to see more species soon.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by daveuk »

58chevy wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:20 pm Today was the beginning of the 2023 collecting season for me. I was able to capture several falcate orangetips (Anthocharis midea), usually the first butterfly of the season in my area. Also flying were numerous question marks (Polygonia interrogationis), but they didn't allow me to get close enough to net them. The weather has been warm for a week and a half, so I expect to see more species soon.
Amazing to think your season is underway there .
It will be a couple of months before anything really starts flying in numbers here in the U.K. Enjoy your warm weather!!.
Anthocharis a real harbinger of spring here too. Though here it's A cardamines of course. Still a common butterfly in these parts. Here are four males I collected last Spring. I have permission from a local landowner friend to collect on his land.
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Trehopr1
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by Trehopr1 »

Beautiful settings Dave. The little fellows like this (I've found)
are best set right away (for best appearance/results) !

That's how I do my small stuff as they will never be fresher or
as pliable to work with....

I'm envyous 58chevy of your Texas weather !
Dang, I can't imagine catching butterflies for
at least another month and (1/2).
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by daveuk »

Trehopr1 wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2023 10:00 pm Beautiful settings Dave. The little fellows like this (I've found)
are best set right away (for best appearance/results) !

That's how I do my small stuff as they will never be fresher or
as pliable to work with....

I'm envyous 58chevy of your Texas weather !
Dang, I can't imagine catching butterflies for
at least another month and (1/2).
Thanks Trehopr. Agree that butterflies like this are best set fresh. I try & do all my self collected specimens here that way whenever possible.
Not long to wait for either of us now!! We have had cold snaps in early spring for the past couple of years here. Our already relatively short season made even shorter. ☹️
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by 58chevy »

Dave, I agree with Trehopr. Your Anthocharis are beautifully spread. I spread mine as soon as I got home from the field today and still managed to ruin one of them.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by daveuk »

58chevy wrote: Fri Feb 24, 2023 12:37 am Dave, I agree with Trehopr. Your Anthocharis are beautifully spread. I spread mine as soon as I got home from the field today and still managed to ruin one of them.
Thanks 58chevy. It's easily done to make a mess of setting/spreading. I just turned 65 so I am finding the hands are not as steady & the eyesight not as good as it once was. I always beat myself up over any mistakes I make though...
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by 58chevy »

Dave, my hands & eyesight are not as good as they used to be either, but with the aid of glasses I can still do a reasonable job of spreading butterflies at age 74. Your skills should remain better than mine for at least a decade.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by livingplanet3 »

58chevy wrote: Thu Feb 23, 2023 9:20 pm ...The weather has been warm for a week and a half, so I expect to see more species soon.
Indeed - some unusually warm (for Feb) days in TX over this past week or so; it reached 87 F (30.6 C) in DFW on Tue. I saw Anaea andria and various pierids flying. The temperatures have returned to much more typical now, but I suspect that spring might be a bit early this year, at least for the southwest. Pear trees are already starting to bloom / leaf out, and I began seeing crane flies at least a couple of weeks earlier than usual.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by 58chevy »

Actias luna is now flying also.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by jhyatt »

On the coast of Georgia this week it's been in the lower 80's most days, and I'm seeing Pheobis sennae in some numbers, and the occasional Papilio palamedes on the wing. Megathymus yuccae is probably flying, but it's a tough bug to spot!
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by mothman55 »

You southerners are lucky, we just got 8 inches of snow in the Toronto area and won't see the first mourning cloaks until at least April (and those are the overwintered ones). I heard California got snow this week as well.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by kevinkk »

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It's 24 f this morning, we got about 8 inches of snow Thursday, unheard for the central Oregon coast.
Moths fly pretty much all year here, I just caught a geometrid a few weeks ago that flew up to the patio door. It's set and in my collection, with
capture data..I think it's going to be unnamed for some time to come-
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by boghaunter1 »

kevinkk,

Now that looks like the present situation here in NE Sask., CANADA... ever since the 1st week in Nov. '22... except snow here is about 3 feet+ thick & temps recently very cold down to -33 C (-27.4 F). Thankfully it is warming up again... really yo-yo temps here all winter. No leps flying here ( as normal!) until mid-late April. Saw, on the dish, all the snow received in Oregon & California... WOW!!.. obviously the exception, not the rule.

Hey Mothman55... so you Torontonians are really suffering ...eh?... haha... remember you still live in Canada, one of the coldest countries in the world... where I believe the average year round temp is about -5 C? (-23 F)! Your area always has much earlier springs than here out west (we are much farther north latitude wise... southern Ontario is, I think, at the same latitude as northern California & Oregon.... oops!...sorry states guys for sending those vicious arctic vortices down your way! Hopefully an early warm spring for all of us.

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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by jhyatt »

jhyatt wrote: Sat Feb 25, 2023 3:25 pm On the coast of Georgia this week it's been in the lower 80's most days, and I'm seeing Pheobis sennae in some numbers, and the occasional Papilio palamedes on the wing. Megathymus yuccae is probably flying, but it's a tough bug to spot!
jh
Pardon my mistyping of Phoebis sennae. And I can add Papilio glaucus to the short list of things flying in McIntosh Co., GA on Feb. 26. No sign of the elusive giant skipper, though.
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Re: First Captures of 2023

Post by Trehopr1 »

It's March.31st and amazingly I spotted a very "fresh" Comma Butterfly (Polygonia c-album) flitting about my very own front yard just now at 12:02 p.m.

Granted, it is one of our hibernator species but, more importantly a warm front has come through the Chicago land region and it is 65° outside right now; our warmest day of the year yet !!

I decided to just enjoy the beauty of this little creature and the joy that it brought to me just seeing it's bold color set against the otherwise tan coloration of dormant grass and leafless trees....
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