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Category Archives: Butterflies

Common North American Butterflies mainly encountered throughout Houston Texas

Young Monarch Caterpillars From Parents On Their Way To Mexico

We have 28 young Monarch Caterpillars.  I’m assuming that the eggs were originally laid from the Monarchs we’ve seen over the last couple of weeks. A few days ago I decided to check a couple of the Milkweed plants to see if any eggs had hatched.  I was pleasantly surprised to find 28 young Monarch…

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Monarchs Are Migrating Through Houston!

Now the Monarchs are really migrating through Houston!  We saw probably close to 10 Monarchs today.  The strange thing was most of them just kept on flying, they didn’t stop anywhere in the yard. Fortunately, not all of them kept on flying.  Two of them stopped by and I was able to tag them.  One…

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Monarch Number Two Has Been Tagged

Had a new Female Monarch visit today.  Like the first one, she was pretty beat up, but healthy enough to lay some eggs before moving on. She was tagged with NGC 401. After we tagged and released her, she flew over to the Basil for a quick re-assessment of what she came by for. After…

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American Painted Lady Butterfly On Pink Butterfly Bush

I don’t often see, much less photograph, the American Painted Lady Butterfly, but I was fortunate enough to see one the other day. This Butterfly was feeding on one of the Butterfly Bush’s we have.  Obviously Butterflies love this plant, but Hummingbirds love it as well.

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Minutes Old Monarch Caterpillar

Remember the female Monarch that came by to visit the other day?  I mentioned that she laid some eggs, and today one of those eggs hatched. I’ve never photographed a Monarch Caterpillar that was a mere minutes old. You can even see its egg casing in the background.  It’s quite amazing to me that these…

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First Tagging Monarch Migration 2010

Woohoo! Our first Fall Migration Monarch appeared today.  She was a beautiful, but worn, female. Her colors are a bit faded, and she has some small tears on her bottom left wing, but she appeared strong and was laying eggs. We’ve never tagged Monarchs before, but this year we ordered several hundred tags.  Our tags…

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Queen Butterfly On Blue Mistflower

Before I left Fredericksburg I bought to small Blue Mistflower plants since these seemed to be such Butterfly magnets. I already shared pictures of multiple Queen Butterflies feeding on the Blue Mistflower, but in going through my pictures from the week, I found this particular photo of one Queen Butterfly. Something struck me about this…

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Multiple Queen Butterflies In Flight

Once again there were lots and lots of Queen Butterflies.  Today they were not congregated around the “Bubba” Desert Willow, this time there were all around this plant called “Blue Mist” (I think that was the name).  I’m going back tomorrow on my way out of town to get whatever plant this was. Update.  This…

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Queen Butterfly In Flight Through Wildflowers

I went back out today to take more pictures of the Wildflowers.  I figured if I got lucky, I’d get some nice Butterfly shots, and if I really got lucky, I’d get some Hummingbird pictures as well. Well, I got lucky!  These might be some of my most favorite pictures I’ve ever taken. This is…

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Queen Butterflies Mating

I saw one of the most unusual Butterfly events today.  In this “Bubba” Desert Willow tree was a swarm of Queen Butterflies.  There must have been around 50 Queen Butterflies flying around this tree.  Personally, I’ve never heard of a “Bubba” Desert Willow and I have no idea if they are good at attracting Butterflies,…

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