I got a few pictures, but I missed several and several others weren’t that good as I got over-excited.

The plants that seemed to be attracting the most Butterflies were the Lantana and Butterfly Bush.

The most prevalent Butterfly I saw today was the Eastern Black Swallowtail.  Interestingly, none of them were laying any eggs, they were just going after the nectar and chasing each other.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush

On top of all that, we’re having a crisis.  We are running out of Dutchman’s Pipevine (Aristolochia Fimbriata) and neither Joshua’s Native Plants nor Buchanan’s Native Plants has any in stock.  We have at least 15 huge Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillars and although I’ve been thinking they will soon stop eating and form Chrysalises, I’m apparently mistaken.  I could have sworn they were going to stop eating yesterday, and yet today there they were, still munching away.  They were even eating the Dutchman’s Pipevine stems since there were so few leaves.

I’m going to start calling first thing in the morning and see if any other nurseries have this plant in stock.  For those of you in the Houston area reading this, if you know of a source, please share!

Eastern Black Swallowtail Hatching After Almost 7 Months

We took the Butterfly outside to warm up in the sun, but the sun never appeared.  Once it became clear it was going to rain, we brought the Butterfly back inside and plan on releasing it tomorrow.

We haven’t seen any Monarch Butterflies, but we do have 9 Caterpillars from the one Monarch from Mexico.  To give the Caterpillars the best chance of success, I have quarantined them in our Butterfly Enclosure.  I did this to protect the Caterpillars from predatory wasps and flies.  So far, all of the Monarch Caterpillars appear to be doing great.

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Blooms

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding On Milkweed Flower

Mexican Monarch Caterpillar Feeding

Another Butterfly that has been making daily visits is a Giant Swallowtail.  From what I can tell, she really likes laying eggs on our Moro Blood Orange Tree.  On that tree alone I’ve counted over 9 different eggs, and I’m sure there’s some I haven’t seen.

Giant Swallowtail Butterfly Egg

I was fortunate enough to also catch a glimpse of 2 Giant Swallowtail Caterpillars. The Caterpillar in the picture below is about two days old.  You can even see the egg casing (white) in the background.

Two Day Old Giant Swallowtail Caterpillar

We’ve also seen the Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly.  I’ve been able to find 1 Caterpillar so far.  I’ll post some pictures of that later.

We saw a Monarch (it never did land on our Milkweed), Gulf Fritillary, and a Giant Swallowtail.  I also noticed that one of Monarch eggs had hatched, and another should hatch by tomorrow.

That’s what we “saw”, but we also managed to get some pictures of something we have never seen before, at least not in our backyard.

However, before all that, let me share a picture of something we have seen many times, but it’s always nice when it happens.

Giant Swallowtail Laying Eggs On Moro Orange Tree

The above picture is a Giant Swallowtail laying eggs on a Moro Orange Tree, also knows as a Blood Orange Tree.  She was also laying eggs on our Republic of Texas Orange Tree and Ruby Red Grapefruit Tree.

The part I’ve never seen before is a Giant Swallowtail “Puddling.”  Puddling is where Butterflies sip moisture and minerals from mud or sandy soils. What was interesting is that the Giant Swallowtail was “Puddling” in my backyard.  I did spread some topsoil earlier in the year, so I suppose there were salts and minerals in the topsoil.

Giant Swallowtail Puddling

Giant Swallowtail Puddling Closeup

Right after this Butterfly exited the Chrysalis, we placed it on our Fennel so that it could continue to dry out its wings.

Eastern Black Swallowtail Hatchling

I took this one out once the sun was out and let it warm up on the Rosemary plant we have.

He/She simply opened their wings towards the sun and warmed up a bit before flying off.  Traditionally these Butterflies have used our Fennel as their host plant and we have plenty of that right now.

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Rosemary

Before I share the picture, take a moment to think about this wonderful thing of nature.  How the heck do these Butterflies know in October, when it’s still quite warm in Houston, Texas, that they should stay in the Chrysalis stage until March?  Heck, it was 80 degrees today, the hottest day of the year so far.  When I stop and think about this it just amazes me.  Anyway, just some random thoughts.  Now on to the picture (taken by Leecy).  Oh, and we had two of them hatch today!

Eastern Black Swallowtails Hatching After 6 Months

My best shot I’ve ever taken of the Fiery Skipper.

Fiery Skipper On Butterfly Bush

This poor old Gulf Fritillary was trying to get some nectar from the Hummingbird feeders and kept getting constantly harassed.

Gulf Fritillary Harassed By Honeybee

Gulf Fritillary With Honeybee

Here’s some Monarch pictures.

Male Monarch Resting On Milkweed

Monarch Feeding On Cigar Bush

Monarch Blue Background

Here’s an Eastern Black Swallowtail that had just hatched.

Newly Hatched Eastern Black Swallowtail On Butterfly Bush