Butterflies And Wildlife » Long Tailed Skippers

How To Build A Successful Butterfly Garden Videos

texdr — Thu, 25 Mar 2010 23:07:23 +0000

I thought I would put together some brief videos on how to create a successful Butterfly Garden for my last day of vacation.

There are a total of 5 videos, each one is less than 2 minutes long. Watching these should give you a decent idea of how to start (or continue) a successful Butterfly Garden.

In this first video, I talk about how to buy Milkweed, what prices you should expect to pay (at least in Houston), how to tell if you have healthy Milkweed, and how to plant your Milkweed plants.

In this second video clip, I talk about the importance of having Nectar plants for your Butterfly Garden. I also show a brief clip of my Butterfly Enclosures.

By the way, some good nectar plants I recommend are Penta, Salvia, Purple Coneflower, Lantana, Butterfly Bush, and the Cigar Bush.

In this third video clip, I talk about some other Host Plants for your Butterfly Garden including, Pipevine, Fennel, and Citrus Trees.

In the fourth video clip, I talk about some additional Host Plants for Butterflies including Spicebush and Passion Vine, as well as what kinds of Butterflies you can expect to attract with the different Host Plants.

In this fifth and final video clip I talk about some additional Butterfly Gardening tools such as portable Butterfly Enclosures and long tweezers.

If you have any questions about these videos, where to buy plants or the additional Butterfly Gardening tools, just send me an email or leave a comment.

Hope you enjoy and it makes sense!

Beautiful Long Tailed Skipper

texdr — Fri, 06 Nov 2009 02:59:01 +0000

It’s a shame that the Long Tailed Skipper is considered a pest. Sure, it has done a pretty good job of eating the beans in our garden, but until this picture I never realized what beautiful colors they have. This picture is straight out of the camera, only cropped and sharpened.

Beautiful Long Tailed Skipper

7D Pictures Fresh Out Of The Camera

texdr — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 02:23:50 +0000

First up, a Long Tailed Skipper. They’re prettier than I thought.

Long Tailed Skipper On Cigar Bush

My first reaction was that the features and the hair weren’t as sharp as I was expecting. With minor sharpening I think it looks okay

Old Monarch On Cigar Bush

My reaction to the above shot is it again wasn’t quite as crisp as I was expecting, but I was pleasantly surprised by the overall color and shadows of the picture.

Hummingbird On Wire, 7D

On this picture, I was pleasantly surprised by the nicely blended background. My 40D wouldn’t have done near as well I don’t think.

Here’s another similar shot, but more feather detail is present.

Another Hummingbird, 7D

Hey Butthead!

texdr — Fri, 12 Jun 2009 03:15:56 +0000

Or at least that’s what the head of this Long Tailed Skipper looks like to me. Last year, not knowing what kind of caterpillar these were, I admit to, uh, removing them from my Bean plants. This year, I allow them to munch on as many Bean leaves as they wish. However, I can also see why some folks consider these caterpillars a pest as it doesn’t take them long to demolish the leaves.

Long Tailed Skipper

Weekend Review

texdr — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:57:39 +0000

We’ve had a “fruitful” Memorial holiday weekend when it comes to Monarch Butterflies hatching. We had 1 Monarch Butterfly hatch on Friday, 3 on Saturday, 4 on Sunday, and 10 today (Monday). For those that are mathematically challenged, that’s 18 Butterflies. Of the 18, ten of those were males and eight were females.

Tomorrow should be another busy day as it looks like about 12-15 will be hatching. I put a Butterfly Bush in the Butterfly Enclosure so they can get some nectar after they hatch and since we won’t be able to release them until we get home from work.

The one photo below of the Monarch against the blue sky is probably my favorite photo thus far, and of course I didn’t take it:-). The second picture is one of the hatchlings on a Purple Coneflower. Finally the third picture is 3 of the hatchlings on the Butterfly Bush

Monarch Blue Sky

Monarch on Purple Coneflower

Multiple Monarchs on Butterfly Bush

Beans, Beans, The Musical Fruit

texdr — Tue, 26 May 2009 02:37:24 +0000

Actually the title has nothing to do with this post, I was just trying to think of something witty. I’ve never posted a picture of this next Butterfly because they are pretty hard to photograph. They bounce from leaf to leaf constantly. This little guy is known as a Long Tailed Skipper or Bean Leaf Roller Butterfly. You’ll never guess what their host plant is. It’s a…

wait for it…

Beans, or in the case of our garden, Green Beans.

We had these Butterflies last year but I didn’t know what they were at the time.

Long Tailed Skipper