Butterfly Gardening and Conservation Blog

Good butterfly day!

Yesterday was a pretty good butterfly day here. I saw my first Buckeye of the year. Also, a Black Swallowtail laid a bunch pf eggs, the first set I've gotten this year so far. Also saw a Snout Butterfly, a short glimpse of a Great Spangled Fritillary and again, some sulfurs and blues and hairstreaks. Quite a few small skippers around too, I got a picture of a couple of them mating and of some American Lady caterpillars. Unfortunately, I think my camera may not be working right, so they may not have taken.

starting to see a few butterflies

I've been meaning to update this for the last few days, but kept forgetting.

I've been seeing a Great Spangled Fritillary around the garden pretty much every day now. Last year I only saw one once the whole summer! It won't let me get close enough to get a decent picture though.

Also saw a Red Spotted Purple on a banana last weekend, first of those I've seen this year, and a Snout Butterfly. And of course various sulfurs, whites, blues and hairstreaks that I can't identify from a distance.

The Giant Swallowtail I've been raising just started pupating today!

Haven't seen any Monarchs around yet, and others I've talked to in this area said they haven't seen any yet either.

I believe I have American Lady catepillars on their host plants, but they make nests and I don't want to disturb them.

short garden update

Saw a Zebra Swallowtail in the garden very briefly over the weekend, it was just finishing up nectaring on a Butterfly Weed.

I may have seen a Great Spangled Fritillary yesterday too, just got a glimse of the butterfly so I'm not certain, but that is what it looked kind of like.

It's raining today - so no butterflies. I have other work I need to get done now anyway. Hopefully, if I work hard enough now, in August - the peak butterfly season here - I will have more spare time to just sit outside and look at butterflies.

As far as the garden is doing:
the purple milkweed is already done blooming - got some nice pictures of it I'll have to get on the site soon. Haven't seen any Monarch eggs on any milkweed yet though.

My baptisia australis is not doing well, may need to buy another one. Most other plants are doing fine though.

Still not back together yet

I still don't have myself back together yet since my father's death, I'm slowly getting there though.

I still haven't had time to answer the emails people have sent me either, but I will get to that soon.

Last weekend I did see an American Lady butterfly laying eggs though! This was the first American Lady I've ever seen! I got some pictures back of it today, but they didn't turn as well as I had hoped. I don't believe I even have an American Lady page on the site yet, or pages for its host plants - I'll try to add those sometime in the next few weeks.