Or maybe that's a Postman in flight; too hard to tell. You asked about the height of the building at Magic Wings. All I can say is it's very high. Here is a picture of one of the 3 gazebos they have scattered around the conservatory. The ceiling goes way above the gazebos.
Now I have a dragonfly for you to identify for me if you can.
Lastly here is a photo of three Gray Crackers. It's not the prettiest picture, but I thought it was interesting, with the camouflage and all.
Oooops! Sorry about that; that's not even a pretty picture! I'm having a hard time finding it. Here's a nice Mourning Cloak.
This has to be it!
pajarito, I have several candidates for your dragonfly. The three below are all shades of blue. In the picture they are left to right,
Atlantic Bluet, Seaside Dragonlet, Eastern Pondhawk.
I hope it helps.
Art
Oops, the Atlantic Bluet didn't show up well due to the copyright marking.
These are not my photographs. The photographs are Tom Murray's from his website, which I linked above.
edited...this one didn't come out good either. I will try a bigger picture next post.
This message was edited Sep 6, 2005 8:23 AM
Here goes. This is not my photograph. The photographs are Tom Murray's from his website, which I linked above.
An update on this thread with a reminder.
In the post by pajarito on Sep 2, 2005, 2:26 PM, she discusses butterfly feeders at the Magic Wings in Deerfield, MA. If you look at her pictures of butterflies at this feeder you might want to try this yourself this coming spring or summer. The problem will be you won't be able to find these plastic glasses at that time of the year.
I mention this now, as about the only time you can buy these plastic champagne glasses is this time of year as we approach the New Year holiday. Next summer when you are thinking about putting out a feeder to attract butterflies and you remember the pictures you saw by pajarito here, you won't be able to find the plastic glasses anywhere.
So, get 'em while they are available.
Art
Wow - I sure enjoyed this thread. All the pictures are wonderful! I am certainly going to go out and look for thos champagne glasses. I would also like to try the banana and scrubbie in the salsa dish too. I will now try and think of a way to avoid the ants lol! Here's a butterfly from my yard in Tn. as a very small thank you to you Art and Pajarito. I bought 2 butterfly books so I can try to identify the pictures I took this past summer. I will certainly continue to look for your posts!
That's a very pretty butterfly. Do you know what kind it is? Good photo, too.
Hi Pajarito! I believe its a Gulf Fritillary. I just looked it up in my new butterfly books. It looks like the very north eastern tip of Tn. is just outside their normal range. I saw more than one of them at the very end of the summer last year. Here is a picture of the other side of it.
Here's another view of it.
And here's one I saw a little bit earlier in the season.
Art and Pajarito,
Can't believe I missed seeing this posting when it first came out. Awesome photographs!!!
I've never been to a butterfly conservatory...but then again...south Texas is pretty much one a la Mother Nature style :o)
South Texas has made the butterflies news recently with new US records sighted in December: a Broad-Tipped Clearwing (pteronymia cotytto), several Four-Eyed Sailors (dynamine postverta) over a period of several days and a Painted White (pieriballia viardi).
We had a huge colony of Mexican Bluewings aka Blue Wave back in early Fall. The females were ovipositing on the vassey adelia in massive numbers...and seems every time you turned around there were freshly emerged butterflies flitting by in waves of blue. I was able to photograph eggs, chrysalides, numerous caterpillars and lost count of the butterflies :o)
We've also had several Gray Crackers and Guatemalan Crackers too as well as those gorgeous Malachites!!! I just love that chocolate and green coloring of that butterfly!!!
Several Blomfild's Beauty butterflies keep making appearances as well.
Will let you in on a secret we use down here - we use Butterfly Bait to attract the fruit feasters. We find a large variety of butterflies eating at bait stations - Blomfield Beauty, Gray Cracker, Guatemalan Cracker, an assortment of Leafwings, Question Marks, Hackberrys, Emperors, Blue Waves, Red Rims, Band Cell Sisters, Red Admirals, Banners, Malachites, Satyrs...oh, I can't remember them all...but the stuff really pulls them in.
The mix is simple: Mash a few pounds of ripe bananas, a pound of brown sugar and 1 bottle of Guiness Stout beer. Just put everything in a blender and mix it up. Use it fresh or let it ferment in an old milk jug for several weeks to a year! I keep a gallon of it in my south Texas garage (temperature warm up in there!) and open the lid every couple of days or to vent it so it won't explode. As I use it I mix up a new batch and add it to the jug.
I have several pieces of firewood (with bark) hanging from my trees. I used a saw to cut out some grooves into it so the butt-bait will stay put and run off. Many of the folks out at the butterfly gardens just pour it on old tree stumps or fence posts.
I have photos of the butterflies posted on Network54's Butterfly Forum if ya'll want to have a look-see.
~ Cat
Hi Pajarito, Lilyfantn, Cat
Nice to see you here.
The butterfly just above is a Gulf Fritillary. It's about the most common butterfly here in S Florida. They are here year round in good numbers.
Cat, that recipe just went into my butterfly files along with Pajarito's recipe. There was another one I picked up in a local newspaper story back in the summer. The story was about a Butterfly Show in Cincinnati, Ohio at the Krohn Conservatory. In the story they mention the attendants there use Gatorade sprayed on their skin to attract the butterflies so they will land on them.
I don't have problems drawing butterflies to my yard. I have plenty of stuff they like for nectar and their larvae. What I plan to use the recipes for is to get the butterflies to land and stay put so I can get some decent pictures of them. I need them to be in the right light, out of the steady easterly breeze that prevails here, and pause for more than a second or two in the same spot. I think the bait might do the trick for me. At any rate, I just can't get good pictures and will stoop to using bait, if i have to, to get them to perch still for a few minutes so I can capture their image. After all, what's the difference in using bait or planting the right flowers to attract them. It's the same principal isn't it. Do what it takes to get them into our yards.
I have been replanting my yard since the first hurricane in July through the last one in October. Due to the many flowers blossoming from the replanting, I have more butterflies than usual for this time of the year. The only one that seems to be missing is the Zebra Longwing. They have not been around since Wilma in October.
Art
I'm sitting here reading about all the wonderful butterflies in Texas and the south while it snows outside my window. This really makes me long for Summer and Winter has barely begun !
Lilyfan and Art. That sure is a Gulf Frit. Guess I've never seen the underside before; as you know NH is not too close to the Gulf!!
Cat, loved your recipe. Glad to know the bflies like beer too. We really are kindered souls.
I also love the Blue Waves, but have only seen them at Magic Wings, never in the wild, free.
Art, it's not cheating. Are hummingburd feeders "cheating"? I think not, it's giving them what they need and letting you enjoy their beauty at the same time.
I might just have to make the treck to Magic Wings this weekend to get a butterfly fix; if it doesn't snow!
Heidi
Heidi, if you are suffering the "blah's", I have an idea for you. Take a look at this link here on Dave's. The last post is one I made this morning. http://davesgarden.com/forums/t/564383/
If you want to get away for a few hours, take a (virtual) trip to the last link on my last post there. It's Top Tropicals. A very cool plant retailer our S Fl Galloping Gardeners frequently visit. It's run by a Russian couple that settled here in Fort Lauderdale. They run a local nursery and a web mail order business. Their web site is great. They include lots of pictures they take on their frequent buying trips around the world. Since they deal in tropical plants, their trips are, of course to the tropics. It's a nice place to visit on a cold dreary day.
Art
