cpgibson's Identifications

A solo visit for butterflies; I did not visit any other part of the WEA. The weather at the start was sunny and 85 degrees ("feels like" 94), with a light breeze. I first counted the butterflies feeding on the abundant Bristle Thistle blooms:

280 swallowtails
57 Cloudless Sulphurs
"27" skippers (a known underestimate , as I was focusing on the swallowtails and sulphurs, which were detectable at a distance)
1 Gulf Fritillary
1 White Peacock
1 Common Buckeye

Plus, several Flat-headed Baldcypress Sapwood Beetles

Plus one Larger Florida Mantis (a medium-sized one that ignored swallowtails that in one case, seemed to brush it as it moved from one side of the bloom to the other; the mantis must have been seeking smaller prey such as bees or skippers)

Then I started taking photographs, trying to avoid duplication of individual butterflies as much as possible. I am submitting the following records:

50 skippers
36 swallowtails
21 sulphurs
3 crescents
2 bees
2 Flat-headed Baldcypress Sapwood Beetles
1 moth
and a few others

I left at 1156 -- after 62 minutes at the pond, which is partially flooded! -- and headed home.