Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
.jpg)
Category Archives: Gulf Fritillary 2011 was such a devastating year for the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly, at least in my backyard. The drought was so bad I think it affected many Butterflies, but in terms of normal abundance, this species was hit pretty hard. Fast forward to 2012, and now January 2013 and these Butterflies have really made a comeback. …  I like the following Gulf Fritillary Butterfly picture because of my accidental glowing background. The butterfly is on a peach Zinnia, and behind that there was a pink Zinnia, and the blue background was the accidental part which is actually part of a pool float.  I went outside this morning because the temperature was so nice. I was surprised to see so many Butterflies flying around. There was an Female Eastern Black Swallowtail laying tons of eggs on the Fennel, lots of Gulf Fritillaries getting nectar from the nectar plants (Zinnia and Lantana), and a male Queen Butterfly on the…  Let me start off by saying I had very high hopes for this lens and I have no bias against Sigma. I’m also not an expert, so feel free to take my review with a grain of salt. In short, I am returning this lens. I’m just not loving it, and to my eyes, the…  Although I haven’t posted much lately, it’s not because there hasn’t been any Butterfly activity in the backyard. Right now we have Giant Swallowtails, Monarchs, Skippers, Sulphurs, Eastern Black Swallowtails, and lots and lots of Gulf Fritillary Butterflies. Last year with the drought, the Gulf Fritillaries really appeared to be effected. We saw very few. …  Last year the Gulf Fritillary butterflies seemed to be hit especially hard with the drought. Fortunately this year we have seen quite a few. I’ve also spotted several Gulf Fritillary caterpillars and chrysalises. The picture below is from my wildflower garden. I’ve essentially just let it grow wild this year and it has done fantastic. …  I did take my trip to Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge. Specifically I went to the Skillern Tract part of the refuge. I can’t recommend this part of the wildlife refuge highly enough. It is awesome! From what I read, it’s still relatively unknown among birders, but that probably won’t last for long. I actually went…  I’ve mentioned previously that we really haven’t seen many Gulf Fritillary Butterflies this year. I still think the drought has something to do with that. However, while I was out photographing the Monarch Butterflies, I noticed a smaller Butterfly chasing the Monarchs. It turns out it was a Gulf Fritillary. I’m assuming this one is…  Before this year and the drought we have experienced, one of the most common Butterflies we had in the backyard was the Gulf Fritillary. That has not been the case this year. We have seen very few and as a result our Passion Vine is taking over one area of the garden (from the lack…  Finally a Butterfly appeared in the garden! We’ve seen next to nothing this entire summer. Everyone in this area just wants the Summer to be over, and to get a little rain. The Butterfly that appeared was a Gulf Fritillary and it showed up right after I was done watering the Zinnia garden.  I finally got a chance to take out my new lens, the Canon EF 300 f2.8, and it was a real treat. This lens picks up so much detail it’s amazing! I also got a chance to take a picture of a bird utilizing my new bird pond/photography blind I built last week. I took…  Today was a big release day for Monarch Butterflies. We released a total of 6 Monarchs today. We also found a Monarch and Gulf Fritillary feeding on the Mexican Flame Vine. My plan was to place each of the 6 Monarchs on this Cherry Blossom and take a few pictures. Of course that plan failed… I don’t have any pictures to share tonight but I thought I’d provide an update on our Butterfly Garden, particularly with the Monarchs. Strangely enough, we have quite a few Monarch Butterflies right now. We’ve been releasing 1-2 Monarchs per day for the last couple of weeks. In a way, this makes some sense. In…  In addition to the Monarchs, the Gulf Fritillary Butterflies are taking advantage of the warm weather and laying eggs and getting nectar from the Trailing Purple Lantana. I’m not sure how long this plant is supposed to stay in bloom, but it is really doing well.  As I’m sure most of the folks in the U.S. are experiencing, we are bracing for a big cold front here in Houston. Yea, I know, how cold does Houston really get, but when it’s been 82-83 degrees that last two days and tonight it’s dropping down to 31 this weekend, that’s cold for us…. |
|