I'm not a butterfly expert but...

It's strangely humid today. Even the bees have come back out to play. 

That is probably the "Little Yellow" butterfly.  It is in a group known as "Sulfur Butterflies.  Latin name is Eurima lisa. Some of the members of this group look a lot alike, so my identification is not guaranteed.

The SIZE of the butterfly (forewing tip to forewing tip of the fully spread butterfly) is a significant characteristic used to distinguish between very similar species. I can not tell the size of your butterfly from the photo.

The Little Yellow is very common

Millions of this fragile-seeming species migrate in the fall to the Caribbean.

I checked the Accuweather web site; they quoted that the record high where I live as 88° F in 1963. I don't know if that number is the actual observation or post 1999 correction though. I guess the farmers were feeding beans to their cattle.

Yes, lots of what I thought were Yellow Sulfurs are out. I left my Hummingbird feeders out for an extra week or two because I noticed the butterflies at them. brought them in and cleaned them a few days ago. We had Zebra butterflies at the garden flowers, a neat shape of butterfly. 

I still have my hummingbird feeders out for the late migrators.

A sure harbinger of autumn and approaching winter, the yellow sulfur (AKA cloudless sulfur) is on the move through our area.

The cloudless sulphur is one of our most common and attractive Florida butterflies and is particularly prominent during its fall southward migration.

The cloudless sulphur is widspread in the southern United States, and it strays northward to Colorado, Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Indiana and New Jersey , and even into Canada. It is also found southward through South America to Argentina.

The fall migration of cloudless sulphurs is the easiest to observe butterfly migration in the southeastern United States. On fine days in the fall, in the Southeast, any butterfly watcher driving an east-west road through open country will likely see these bright yellow butterflies crossing the road and can confirm that they are crossing much more frequently from north to south than from south to north. (Monarchs are migrating at the same time, but they generally fly too high to see and are heading for Mexico and hence may miss the Southeast.)

Greymare, what is the latest date you have seen the straggler hummingbirds? When do you bring your feeders in?

   For years I  have noticed the little yellow butterflys this time of year, as I was playing golf,  I always played golf with the yellow golf balls , as doing so this time of year, if i hit a ball in tall grass , as I would be looking in the area, I noticed the yellow butterfly flying over and diping down , sure enought there my ball would be,, I went home told my son and wife this, they both laughted at me,, so I told our son, next time we played golf I would show him,, a few days later we went to Joe Wheeler , I hit my ball over a hill , in the outer edge of the fairway, hey comes this yellow butterfly, dipping down at my ball.. I got the last laught !           That's my story and sticking to it !      

Ha ha, Bama, that is a cool observation.

Since the gathering of migrating hummers is in October on the trace near Colbert Park, mine are still up. I will leave them up until the first freeze to benefit stragglers...usually in November.....depending on the weather. Also, I don't want the feeders to freeze and break.

Thanks for the info. In the future that's what I will do. Up until now I took them in towards the mid to end of Oct. because that is the latest I had noticed any but of course wasn't watching them all of the time.

I was thinking that our first freeze date was Oct 14th but that must have changed over the years.

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Yep.  Global climate change, in significant measure caused by man's activity, has moved first frost dates forward in many areas of the world.

Great replies. I've learned a lot from this thread. Thanks guys. 

I thought maybe it was because I'd been outdoors much more in the last few weeks than normal. I've seen so many of them. 

We still have the hummingbird feeders up but they stopped coming around regularly a few weeks ago here. Bout time to take them down and wash and store them for next year. 

Edit to read "the average date for first frost  freeze in THIS area is .."

Point is, nothing's really changed.  Weather recycles.  Temps were warmer before the first record freeze and so forth and so on.

This is the first year I've had honey bees invade my feeders, hundreds of

them. The hummers have been gone and I left the feeders up for late comers.

The bees drained them. Btw, I reported the first hummer sighting for TN this

year, 3/26. No matter how many feeders are out there, they still fight.

I was discussing this with a friend while watching them this summer. I don't think they can see all that well and that's why they are always on the attack. You are right no matter how many feeders you have they will always fight over them. 

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Hummingbirds have very good vision.  Hummingbirds are extremely territorial.  

<<<Hummingbirds divide themselves by territories. Male hummingbirds will aggressively protect their territories. Each territory is chosen based on the abundance of food, nectar, and water. Many male hummingbirds' territories are about the size of a quarter acre. Females will define their territories by the nests they build. Both male and female hummingbirds fiercely protect these areas..>>>

More at:

http://www.worldofhummingbirds.com/behavior.php

Thanks for that link Contendah. Am reading over it now. 

Hummingbirds are extremely smart. A hummingbird's brain is larger in comparison to body size than any other bird. They have a terrific memory. They know every flower in their territory and how long it will take each flower to refill. Hummingbirds remember year to year, where each and every hummingbird feeder is, both at home and along a migration path.

Fascinating. 

I love hummingbirds.