One more.. This is about 3 shots stitched together.. because of the turn I made taking the pics, the front corner of one row is doubled there where the yard light is in front of the verbena.. Anyhow, you get the gist.. These two shots are the western half of the back yard on March 16th.
Thanks Becky, Some of it is those plastic stone borders that are fit together and held with long spikes through the tops of the faux stones. (I used a string line to make sure they were straight.) Then some is metal edging and some cheap decorative white pickets, just for looks, LOL. Next fall/winter I might build it up a little better, but it works for now.
I've been watching my butterfly gardens where BST cats are eating parsley. There are too many frogs and lizards in the beds too. Plus, a mean mocking bird is stalking about. In order to save some of the cats, I took a fish aquarium and put some potted parley in it along with some BST cats.. The top is covered with a screen and it's sitting under my covered patio, Will this work, you think?
Probably. You'll just have to clean it out every now and again. Try lining the bottom of the aquarium with paper towels. Easier to clean out that way. Good luck! Sounds like a plan!!! Share some photos too! :-)
Ok, so he's not a butterfly or a hummer, but I just love these clearwing hummingbird moths (still look more like bumblebees to me!). First documented visitor to my butterfly garden too (wasps don't count)!
Okaaaaaay! We're cooking in Indianapolis, but I had 2 of these today! They didn't look particularly amorous, but at least I finally have 2 of one family on a single day, so there is hope of eggs and cats!
I am pretty sure it is a GREAT SPANGLED FRITTILARY! Yay!!!
Indiana Lily, We posted at the same time, but your moth is ultra fab!
Suzy
More Great Spangled Frit
and the last one - the only one I could get with the wings open. My camera is slow. I press the button and it counts 1-2-cheese. and the butterfly has closed back up again. :(
Very pretty, Suzy! And isn't it just downright nasty today??? Where's the rain??? What host plant do you have for the Frit?
Indiana, I have violets...that's basically all they eat. I have many of the native blue violets (Viola odorata) but just in case those weren't good enough, I bought some other ones which are kinda pricey for the little plants you get. I don't think they are big enough to support a cat yet. I have no idea where they came from -- I never saw any caterpillars or eggs, even tho I went looking.
Suzy
Blue Glancer, USF does in fact have a butterfly fest every year. Each month they do something different (except in winter). July will be the Tropical Plant Fest, August is bromeliads (my fave!), September is cacti and succulents I think, and then in October is the huge Fall Plant Festival. They have special workshops and classes sometimes too, so check the website. Or become a member and get the newsletter!
Suzy, I totally know what you mean about the camera. I try to time the flapping of the wings to my camera, but mostly it's just luck of the draw. I figure if I take enough photos one might come out well. Like today when I went hiking...
Here's some kind of duskywing...
Another duskywing but I thought this one looked different than the other one. Coreopsis is yummy!
Question - how do you tell the Spicebush Swallowtail from the dark female form of the Tiger Swallowtail?
Here's the underside view...
Like I said, if you take enough pictures, one is bound to turn out. I was so tired after chasing these crescents and my camera battery was almost dead, but it's worth it when you see how well everything turned out.
I was literally at the main gate and I saw this little yellow guy flying around. I actually was on my hands and knees trying to get a shot. Traffic going by must have thought I was crazy. And I am - crazy about butterflies!
Nice pics Millie!
The SBST is what you have in the pic there. The dark form TST has a more transparant black wing with tiger stripes that show through in the light.. Plus they have some orangish dots.
The SBST has a powdery lighter blue like yours, and the black wings are more opaque.
Here is a pic of one ovipositing on Wild Black Cherry, (Prunus serotina)
HI Deborah!
I see your going to take some BSTs in... cool! The tank oughta work alright, but keep it in a well ventilated place so funguses and such don't grow inside the tank. Another important thing is keep it super clean. And last but not least.. When they form a chrysalis do not leave them in the tank. When they eclose the new Bflies can't climb on glass or smooth plastic, and their wings will crumple when drying.. They will not be able to fly until they are able to flatten their wings by hanging around on flowers in the humid weather or rain. If they aren't able to straighten their wings at all they will crawl around the garden for about a week and die.
Meanwhile, look for a mesh hamper with a zipper on it.. The best cages are waterproof and made of mesh or screen material.
Deb, I tried all kinds of things when I started doing this, (taking in cats). I had several failures, but I kept on plugging away and learning first hand from every one. It's what we all have to do I think in order to get a better than 50% survival rate, and that is a long way from the 2% when we leave them out there with the preditors. Any survivors are a wonderful thing!
I made a screen box just for chrysalids. They climb up very well, and I use it for all species together. I even had 2 frits and one BST eclose at the same time a few days ago, and they didn't bother each other at all.
If you still have my phone number, you are always welcome to call me..
Deb
Not sure if you can tell what this is or not, a Monarch or Viceroy, but which one?
There were TWO of them! Yay! But I need some milkweed!
Suzy
C Dawg,
I saw where someone had used an aquarium but stood it on the end. That way you have better ventilation. Also, Debnes, would it work if there were small branches provided to climb on?
Just listen to Debnes, she is our local bf expert!
What are the red flowers in your photo, Suzy? Pretty!
Great photos Mellie and Deb! You girls are in the right place at the right time! :-)
OMG, Becky, They are POPPIES! I have never had any luck with them before, but through DG trades & swaps I got a million seeds. I sowed them every way you can think of, but the direct sow on the ground right before a spring snow worked the best. I have a million billion of them and the place is a riot of color...but the butterflies, bees and hummers have absolutely ignored the ones in the picture! Some of the others are a little more popular, but these are void of any wildlife and I have a slew of them. I've been yanking up the white ones because I don't like white flowers (generally speaking)
The bad news is they only bloom for three weeks and after that they look terrible and you can let a few go to seed and pull up the rest and toss them. The marigolds and other plants in the back are supposed to fill in the space...not too sure about that. I have some teeny tiny seedling Zinnias if there are big gaps left.
Were you able to identify th butterfly in the photo, or was I too far away?
Suzy
Good Idea, Sheia_FW! I was starting to wonder if they would fry in the glass container with just a screen on top. Can someone tell me if the parsley has to be in dirt growing inside the cage?
Suzy - I couldn't be sure which butterfly it is. It looks like a Monarch. But I need to see a closer photo of it. I thought it was Poppies in your photo, but wasn't sure. I, too, received seeds in some swaps and have been trying to grow it here without any luck. Maybe it's too hot here in Florida for them to survive and thrive. Very pretty flowers, though! I would love to have a sea of them in my garden beds. :-)
Deborah - If the aquarium is in sun, then yes! the sun would fry the little cats. (Like a magnifying glass burning a blade of grass. Shade would work though. It just needs good ventilation. Parsley wilts pretty quickly outdoors in the heat if it's not rooted in soil, so I'd recommend a potted parsley plant or two.
On poppies.....I have found that if you cut them back rather than pulling them up, they will come back bigger the next year. At least my opium poppies do.
Oh my gosh, Sheila! Those are beautiful! I planted red oriental poppies in several of my garden beds, but not having much luck getting hardly any to even germinate.
Thanks guys! And thanks for the ID help there Deb. I also saw some buckeyes but they were flying way too fast. I was watching two of them chase each other in circles and fly up and down, and up and down. I got dizzy watching them and had to stop - seriously, I was gonna barf. The Zebra STs were out and about but never really settled down. They were in the vicinity of the pawpaws so I was trying to encourage them to multiply. Maybe I should play some Barry White, lol! I did check many, many, many pawpaws but no luck. I think the one cat I found was my needle in a haystack moment. Does anyone know how ZSTs make a chrysallis? On some of the pawpaws I saw leaves rolled inward and bound by some silky material, but there were also spiders present so I wasn't sure. I'm hoping later this week to get back to the other side of the preserve to check on my ZST cat and see if he's done anything. When I think about that 1% survival rate it makes me sad. One way or another, I'm going to raise some of them.
Oh, I forgot to post this at the time, but that time I got a little turned around in the preserve, I saw another winged friend. I had just been saying how I never see any wildlife in there, when I saw this turkey! I couldn't believe it was a turkey at first until my dad, the hunter, confirmed it. Being turned around (not lost, I was not lost!) at the time, I had reached the point of praying and asking God to send me a sign and help me out, so of course when I saw this turkey while standing at the junction of two trails, I started thinking, "Does God want me to follow the turkey?" (This is what the Florida heat does to your brain.) In the end I decided not to follow the turkey and go the other way instead, and I made it out alive and here I am to tell the tale.
It's probably a very good thing that you didn't follow the turkey. Now, had it been a dove, or an emu, that would have been a different story altogether. :) I saw a turkey as well last week...
Deb, your backyard is AMAZING! You should be very proud!! Did you have a lawn back there before you started this project? If so, how did you kill the grass and how do you keep it from coming back (assuming it is/was Bermuda)? Do you have soaker hoses down or a sprinkler system? And how easy/difficult is it to keep the stuff in pots alive and thriving during our brutal summers?
Carla
Is this a tiger Swallow Tail?
She is huge! These beauties are being relentlessly chased down by a mean ol' kamikaze mockingbird.
Cdawg,
It is indeed a TST and a beauty at that! I've seen a few playing high in the trees but nobody has come close...not like yours!
Adrienne
Enjoying this thread, as usual! Have been working on my BF garden--buying more BF plants off the dollar table at the nursery then planted them this afternoon. So careful to have just the right BF varieties--
Then looked up and saw a beautiful big Zebra swallowtail in the flower border nectaring on the asclepias curassvicas! (A Big Deal for us here). It landed on the A. c. twenty times to only once on the Asclepias tuberosas and never on the lavendar colored milkweeds (can't remember the botanical name)...very interesting statistic for me. The ZST went to only one other flower--a yellow coreopsis, and I think that was a mistake, because it went right back to the curassavica. Ignored everything else in the garden (that I so carefully chose and planted for the BFs!) then flew off to the woods (where the paw paws are).
No pictures. Battery is out. Will get one tomorrow.
Finding this thread very helpful. Thanks everyone!
Great observation! Bummer that the digital was down though.
Visitor to my garage door. The first time I have seen a Luna moth this close. I think this is my favorite species of moth or butterfly.
Wonderful shot!!
Yeah ! Great shot Cindy!
Very cool to see the ZST Judy! My sons and DH went to Big Thicket for a few days and saw them down there. They didn't bring me any pics..:-( Rats! I bought 2 sets of duracell rechargable batteries for my camera and they last for almost 2 weeks each charge. That is really something when you consider the thousands of pics I take in 2 weeks time. I keep a charged set in my purse at all times. :-) So this is a very excellent solution for never being without a working camera if anyone is interrested, worth the initial money, and better for the environment.
Lovely shots of the TST Deborah!! Still working on making an easy CHEAP cage for cats, hopefully I will pull it off today.
Thanks for sharing everyone, I was wrapped up in things going on here at the house, then my computer went wacko on me to boot. That's why I was out a few days. I am now getting caught up. With everything I was still able to snap a few pics here and there.
This is a pretty lil Skipper.. the gold was so brilliant on the wings...
Had fun yesterday chasing some mighty fast b'flies in my b'fly garden. They flit around so quickly I couldn't get any good pictures. None of them stayed long.
Then I went out to a patch of wild growing b'fly weed and there they were! I still contend that wild growing native flowers seem to be more attractive to the populace here. Not only are there more butterflies on them, but they sit and sip for longer periods of time.
This one has gotten a bit roughed up around the edges, but that didn't seem to be a problem!
