Butterfly Gardening and Conservation Blog

The Last Monarch

On Friday the Monarch I had pupating left its chrysalis and flew away! That was five in one week. Later in the day I saw a different Monarch nectaring at the lantana.

I still have a Painted Lady pupating, and everything else should over winter as a pupa.

I added a couple more pages to rest of the site the other day. I'm planning to work on it a lot the next couple of weeks. The hard part will be scanning in all the pictures I have. At least the grocery store strike is over now so I will be able to get the rest of them developed soon. Right now, the only way to get to the rest of site is by either by clicking on the logo or scroll down to the bottom and follow the Home link.

Last of the baby butterflies is pupating!

The last of my caterpillars started to pupate today!

I had three Monarchs emerge from their chrysalids today. One emerged on Monday and I still have one left. One Painted Lady is still pupating too. Everything else should pupate over winter. I don't know how many I have, I should count them sometime.

I got one article finished on the real part (non blog) of this site. The navigation structure is done too, but most of it doesn't really work yet. You can get to the real part of the site either by clicking on the logo or scroll down to the bottom and follow the Home link. Eventually I'll add the regular site navigation to the blog pages too.

I had hoped to get another article written today, but I wasn't really feeling that good.

What a butterfly day!

One of the Giant Swalllowtails I raised came out of its chrysalis today! I don't know if that is really good, this late in the year, but at least I was able to get some pictures of a Giant Swallowtail adult. I need one for the rest of this site, once I finally get around to finishing it and I hadn't been able to get one yet. I had expected to have to wait until spring for them to emerge to be able to get a picture of one. I took nearly a whole roll of film of pictures of it, hopefully they will turn out ok. It will be a while before they get developed because we usually drop our pictures off at a nearby grocery store, but since they are on strike now, they aren't developing pictures.

The bigger news though - I'm really excited about this! Just as I was getting ready to go back in the house after getting the pictures of the Giant Swallowtail I saw a butterfly that caught my attention in front of the house. I moved in closer to get a better look at it. Slowly. Oh my god, it looked like a Variegated Fritillary! I got in closer, yes that's what it looked like. I still had the camera with me so I just started taking pictures, any pictures of it before it flew away. Even if it wasn't a Variagated Fritillary, I knew it was something I had never seen before. Got lots of pictures. Went in the house and got a butterfly field guide, looked up Variegate Fritillary, and yes!!!! It's a Variegated Fritillary!!! This is first one of these I've ever seen! They may be common in some parts of the country, but I've never seen one. I planted a passion vine for them, but I really didn't know if one was ever likely to find it. The neighbors probably really think I'm weird after they saw me in front of the house just staring.

Wow! I'm still excited about it! I had given up on seeing one this year. Again, I wanted a picture of one to use on the other part of the site. I hope the pictures turn out ok. Its wings were perfect too, so they could be really nice pictures.

I know I have been bad about keeping this updated recently, but I will still go back and add some dates back in. I do want to thank some of the people who have stopped in and left comments lately. I apologize for not answering right away though. It turns out I didn't have part of the software set up right and it wasn't notifying me when someone leaves a comment. It should be working now though. As soon as I finish here, I will go back and respond to those comments.

Spicebushes emerging!

I haven't been keeping this up lately, although I have written some notes on paper that I will eventually add back in because I would like to keep records of everything.

I had to write today though - I went out a few minutes ago and a Spicebush Swallowtail had emerged from its chrysalis! I didn't expect that this late in the year. Another looks like it will emerge tomorrow. I don't know what chance they have of finding another butterfly to mate with this time of year though.

I still have some caterpillars in my office. Several Monarchs and Painted Ladies pupating, as well as some other swallowtails. I saw both a Question Mark and Comma feeding off a banana today (and yesterday) too, since it's been a bit warmer.