Autumnal butterflies of Illinois, USA

[CallumMac]

I've been pretty much silent on here since my Long-tailed Blues in mid-September. The reason is that I made a three-week trip to North America between 27th Sept and 19th Oct. Most of the time was spent in and around Champaign-Urbana, central Illinois, where my partner currently works, but we also travelled to Vancouver for 5 days.

Some amazing wildlife seen, including a surprising number and diversity of butterflies, given the lateness of the season. I have finally caught up with sorting and editing photos: I'm not going to do a day-by-day report since it would have a lot of repetition, especially on the butterfly front, but I will do a series of posts over the next few days picking out highlights in chronological order!

[CallumMac]

28th/29th Sept - in and around Urbana

We decided to stay local for the first weekend of my visit, while I settled in and got over my initial jetlag. On the first morning, we walked the short distance from L's flat to the University of Illinois Arboretum in glorious sunshine. Champaign-Urbana is roughly on the latitude of Madrid, and had the 30C temperatures to prove it.

Predictably enough, the first butterfly I spotted was extremely familiar - a Painted Lady! Difficult to tell without a baseline to compare with, but it appeared that they have been as successful in the US this year as they have at home, as we saw loads throughout the trip.

If the Painted Lady was nice-but-slightly-boring, the same certainly couldn't be said for the next butterfly to glide majestically past and perch in a nearby conifer...!

Rest assured there will be many, many more Monarch photos before I'm done with this thread! Next up was our first encounter with one of several Skipper species still on the wing. I found these quite hard to identify because, for some reason, the Americans have separate field guides for "skippers" and "other butterflies" - and in the interests of finance I hadn't bought the skippers guide! However, I'm fairly confident this is Fiery Skipper, Hylephila phyleus.

This one was rather trickier, but I think it may be the Sachem, Atalopedes campestris.

Our favourite part of the Arboretum was the "Idea Garden" - a small community garden that was dripping with nectar. One of the first things we spotted on arrival was this female Ruby-throated Hummingbird!

Among the many flowers were plenty more Monarchs...

...Silver-spotted Skippers - nope, not that one, but Epargyreus clarus...

...Variegated Fritillaries Euptoieta claudia...

...and the rather special Buckeye.

Just as we left, we were briefly buzzed by what I think was a Black Swallowtail, Papilio polyxenes. Sadly this was the only one we saw close-up all holiday, so I never got a sharp photo!

Walking back through the Arboretum, we found some areas of rough ground which held a couple of new species for the trip. The first was Gray Hairstreak Strymon melinus, which was behaviourally more similar to a Green Hairstreak than any of our other species.

The other was Pearl Crescent - a lovely fritillary, but only about as big as a Common Blue! Away from artificial nectar beds, this was probably one of our most commonly-encountered species over the course of the trip.

After lunch, we walked out in the other direction to Meadowbrook Park, a medium-sized area of restored prairie. Here we encountered our fourth Hesperid of the day: I think this one is Peck's Skipper Polites peckius.

There weren't very many butterflies to be seen here, but another nectar garden gave us the chance for some better views of the American version of SSSk.

The other Lepidopteran of note was this rather nice moth - named in the American tradition for its sometime role as an agricultural pest: Grapeleaf Skeletonizer Harrisina americana.

Day 2 started rather less sunny so I was given the tour of downtown Champaign. It brightened up in the afternoon, so we stopped by the Idea Garden on the way home (this will become a theme of this thread...!). I was starting to get my eye in and could now begin to pick out the differences between Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice and Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme (known locally as Alfalfa Butterfly).

Clouded Sulphur

Orange Sulphur

The colours of the garden contrasted beautifully with the various golden skippers.

Sachem

Peck's Skipper

Fiery Skipper

Amongst them was another new skipper: I think this is Tawny-edged Skipper Polites themistocles.

And just about the most incredible micro-moth I've ever seen: Ailanthus webworm Attvea aurea.

Monarchs and Variegated Fritillaries posed nicely, and that brought the first weekend to a very satisfactory conclusion!

[Charles Nicol]

i am enjoying your American butterflies & moths CallumMac

yee haw

[CallumMac]

Thanks Charles - plenty more to come!

30th Sept - 4th Oct - on the commute

For various reasons I spent the first week of my trip working remotely from my partner's office in Champaign, so there wasn't a huge amount of wildlife-watching. However, our walk to and from the office took us through the Arboretum, and the Idea Garden, most days.

Sachem

Monarch

Buckeye

Fiery Skipper

Both Clouded Sulphur and Orange Sulphur have pale forms analogous to helice, which are apparently indistinguishable from each other. These forms were much more common than we are used to with our Clouded Yellows.

One of the most abundant species, which I haven't yet mentioned, was Small White - in the absence of Large or Green-veined Whites, the Americans just call this Cabbage White.

The Idea Garden also held quite of few of these fearsome Wheel Bugs, which were not afraid to take on a decent-sized bumblebee - and often won!

Although the temperature was still well into the 30s, there were plenty of signs that the local wildlife was preparing for winter (which here frequently drops to -20C - brrrrr!). Bluejays were particularly evident, stashing nuts.

Champaign-Urbana also holds a healthy urban population of woodchucks. Photos don't really capture the comedy value of this species and its ungainly run!

With the working week done, on Saturday we headed up to Chicago for the day. We visited the Wildlife Photographer of the Year exhibition at the Field Museum - lots of inspiration but not a butterfly photo to be seen!

[Padfield]

Hi Callum. I too am thoroughly enjoying your pictures. Your woodchuck looks very similar in character to our alpine marmots. They also have an ungainly run but it doesn't stop them legging it at speed across the mountains.

American skippers are not easy! I have a feeling the one you tentatively called sachem in your first post - the male upperside shot beneath your fiery skippers - is actually Peck's. Apart from the forewing details, which look good, that central spot sticking out on the hindwing upperside neatly matches the same thing on the underside.

Look forward to more coming!

Guy

[David M]

Lovely stuff, Callum. Looks like you had a rewarding visit.

The Buckeye is fabulous, but it's also interesting to see species that are clearly very closely related to their European cousins.

I'm looking forward to your next instalment(s).

[aeshna5]

Really enjoyable photos, especially after the gloomy conditions here! It's been many years since I've been that side of the Atlantic, so good to see these, some I recognised, but not all!

[CallumMac]

Thank you all - I hope the rest of the series is as entertaining! Guy, thanks for your feedback - I can see where you're coming from. I can't find a decent online resource for identifying these things, sadly - it's crying out for a "USB forum", but I think that exists already for a rather different market...

Your woodchuck looks very similar in character to our alpine marmots.

Yes - I've seen alpine marmots too and they are very similar (and, of course, related). The woodchucks are a bit larger though, I think.

6th October - Allerton Park

This was our first venture into proper native woodland of Illinois; in fact this tract, half an hour west of Champaign, is in the grounds of a fancy house now owned by the University of Illinois and kept for corporate retreats.

Probably the most remarkable thing about these native woodlands is the incredible diversity and abundance of woodpeckers. On this first day alone we saw six or seven species.

Red-bellied Woodpecker

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker

Northern Flicker

Red-headed Woodpecker

We also encountered many of the characteristic passerines of North America, though photographing them was tricky in the gloom of the woodland!

Tufted Titmouse

Sunnier glades in the woodland offered up the chance to find a few butterflies, all of which were species we hadn't encountered yet in the city's gardens (and in two cases, that we would not encounter again this trip). First up was a tiny Dainty Sulphur Nathalis iole which flitted weakly from flower to flower on the footpath.

We saw a second individual later in the day, which posed rather more photogenically.

Stopping to eat lunch on a log overlooking a clearing, I noticed something very small fluttering between flowers and managed to stalk up to it. A slightly battered Eastern Tailed Blue Cupido comyntas, which rather made up for missing out on peak LTB season at home!

Walking along a riverbank in the early afternoon, we were buzzed by something that looked very familiar, and then once it opened up to bask, not quite so familiar after all! I admit to being very confused by this, because my field guide described it simply as "Comma" - it took me a while to spot the binomial Polygonia comma!

[CallumMac]

7th October - Snake Road

We were up early on the 7th for a long drive south. I wouldn't normally day trip over such a distance but we were told this was not a place to be missed in October, especially for my herpetologist partner. Butterflies were astonishingly thin on the ground - other than a couple of Monarch flypasts, I had to be content with a few Pearl Crescents.

However, the location lived up to its description with a number of sightings of Cottonmouth snakes. Apparently if we had come a couple of weeks later we would likely have seen several other species as well - they migrate across the road in large numbers from a tributary of the Mississippi into a rocky bluff where they can hibernate in the many caves.

We were also lucky enough to see a number of amphibians, including the locally rare Wood Frog.

American Toad

Wood Frog

All day, we had Turkey Vultures circling over our heads, so before leaving I suggested we drive to a carpark at the top of the bluff to see if we could get a closer view. It paid off handsomely as one perched only 10 metres away!

[CallumMac]

8th Oct - Busey Wood and Lake of the Woods

After the long drive the previous day, we decided to stay local to Urbana. The day began with another new butterfly species flitting around a grassy patch in the reserve. It looked a little bit like a Chequered Skipper, but it was in America: must be a Common Checkered Skipper (Pyrgus communis)!

The woodland reserve was full of other delights, despite being fully enclosed by the township of Urbana.

Chipmunk

Downy Woodpecker

Cardinal

American Robin

More American classics were to be found at our afternoon location:

American Bullfrog

White-tailed Deer

As we left, I spotted that two Turkey Vultures circling overhead had been joined by a bird that was apprently even larger! As it wheeled in the sun, I thought I saw a white glint from its head, so I fired off a couple of record shots. Sure enough, my first Bald Eagle!

9th Oct - Starved Rock State Park

We headed north to this park where spectacular rock canyons lead down to the banks of the River Illinois. There is a large population of American White Pelicans here. Strange birds!

As we left, we encountered a flock of Cedar Waxwings - a sure sign of winter's approach...

[CallumMac]

10th - 15th October

We next spent five days in Vancouver, visiting old friends of mine. I will skim through this very quickly, as we saw precisely 0 butterflies in this time! However, that is not to suggest there was no interesting wildlife to be found...

Humpback Whale

Humpback Whales

Bald Eagle

Steller's (large) and Californian (small) Sea Lions

Steller's Jay

Chipmunk

Northern (Hen) Harrier

Chestnut-backed Chickadee on my partner's hand!

Wood Duck

[CallumMac]

16th-18th October - final days in Illinois

After returning from Vancouver, we had just a few more days to explore Champaign-Urbana and the surrounding area before my flight home. Drama surrounding our flights back (don't ask, I'm scarred!) meant we had to stay local on the 16th, plus the weather was grey, so we opted to return to Busey Wood. Not as much to be seen this time, but we had a close encounter with a White-tailed Deer fawn which gave a demonstration of its camouflage, and it was also nice to see a flock of Cedar Waxwings - which are much less impressive than our native Bohemian species.

Can you spot it?

In the early evening I went for a walk alone around the Arboretum while L tried to get an update on our missing suitcase...! In a dead tree I was very, very surprised to spot a small group of what looked like European Robins silhouetted against the grey...

...until one of them flew down and I realised I had found my first Eastern Bluebirds (nowhere near the White Cliffs of Dover)!

17th - for our last full day, we opted to head east to Kickapoo State Park (yes, that's the name, I promise!) - like many of our nature reserves at home, this was formed after a network of former open-cast mines was flooded. Apparently this was the first such reserve in the entire US! We were suitably impressed by the mixture of wetlands and mature native forest, which turned up highlights of both Ruby-crested and Golden-crowned Kinglets and a couple of distant Belted Kingfishers, with one flyover.

My flight on the 18th was a late take-off, so we decided we had time to explore one more site in the morning before heading north. We opted for Sangamon River Forest Preserve - two of our previous locations (Allerton Park and Lake of the Woods) sit further upstream on this river and had been good for woodpeckers in particular. However the habitat here was much more open than we expected, with a large expanse of prairie grassland. We saw another distant Kingfisher on the river, and were stared down by a Cooper's Hawk!

I had thought that our butterflying was over for the trip, having seen since a couple of days before we headed to Vancouver. But as we walked back to the car, we encountered first a Common Checkered Skipper, then a Painted Lady, both in good condition.

Buoyed by that success, I proposed one last, very final, walk through the Arboretum to the Idea Garden (cue eye-rolls from L!). The species diversity was definitely down from that first visit three weeks earlier, but some of the big hitters were still present: Red Admiral, Buckeye, and of course a few Monarchs!

Walking back through the Arboretum, a final Comma buzzed us and settled on the path ahead.

Epilogue - a sad story
I wish that this was the happy conclusion of the trip report, but regrettably this story ends with a painful reminder of our human disregard for nature. Our route back from the Comma to the flat took us past a dead tree - the same one where, three weeks ago, I saw my first Woodchuck, and two days ago, my first Bluebirds. Despite being dead, the scrub around the base of the trunk and the vines growing up it clearly provided a good habitat for a range of species. Coming through the hedge towards it, I realised that something was seriously wrong: I should be able to see the upper branches over the top of a rise in the ground. It sounds like a cliche but I literally ran up the slope and gasped. Where the tree should be was a patch of churned-up ground and a stump. In the middle of the destruction, a Woodchuck cowered: it had seen me, but simply had nowhere to run to.

If we cannot find space for nature in an Arboretum and Botanic Gardens, what hope is there?

[David M]

Fabulous reportage, Callum. I've thoroughly enjoyed it.

What an eclectic range of plants and animals you've seen, including some right at the Premier League end of desirability, e.g. hump-backed whales.

That Comma is very interesting in your earlier post and the Common Checkered Skipper is the finest pyrgus I've laid eyes upon. Superb!

[Sylvie_h]

Thanks for sharing Callum. Nice report.
I am impressed by your cottonmouth snake, it is so well camouflaged amongst the leaves. One would not want to step on it. Well spotted.
I also like your red headed woodpecker, your Steller's jay (aren't they great?) and your cardinal.
Some nice species of butterflies too, late in the year, there was quite a diversity...
Sylvie

[Tony Moore]

Fascinating stuff, Callum, thanks for brightening my autumn days (in more ways than one!).

Tony M.

[aeshna5]

Just for reference you had a typo in the genus for that beautiful micro-moth- it's Atteva rather than Attvea. I wouldn't have known but thought I'd look up more about it. Quite a stunner. Ailanthus is an invasive plant in London- maybe we could do with this beauty here?