Butterflies And Wildlife » Butterfly Bush

American Painted Lady Butterfly On Butterfly Bush

texdr — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:34:01 +0000

I think this is only the second time I’ve ever photographed or seen this particular Butterfly in our yard.

This is an American Painted Lady. In Houston, these Butterflies are most abundant in the Spring and Fall.

You have to look a little close to see this Butterfly as I was shooting it from a distance and didn’t want it to fly off if I got any closer.

American Painted Lady On Butterfly Bush

Butterflies Were Everywhere Today

texdr — Sat, 05 Jun 2010 04:30:57 +0000

Holy Cow! Today there were Butterflies everywhere in the backyard. We had a Monarch, Question Mark, Variegated Fritillary, Giant Swallowtail, Grey Hairstreak, Eastern Black Swallowtail, some type of Crescent Butterfly, and a Pipevine Swallowtail.

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!

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!

Male Monarch On Butterfly Bush

texdr — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:03:18 +0000

Another “critter” that took advantage of the brief bout of sunshine we had was this male Monarch. He was obviously quite hungry as he only would land on this Butterfly Bush, and wasn’t the least bit concerned about patrolling for female Monarchs.

I don’t know about you, but to me he sure has a lot of back hair.

Male Monarch On Butterfly Bush

Butterflies And Bees

texdr — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 01:31:37 +0000

Active day today for Butterflies and Honeybees. They tend to fight on the Cigar Bush. We also had two Eastern Black Swallowtails hatch and one Polydamas. The Skippers were lively today as well. Last but not least, there were a couple of young Monarchs flying around.

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

Update On Polydamas Hatchings

texdr — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 04:22:01 +0000

During the first day we had 10 hatch, yesterday about 5, and just 1 today. They all are apparently staying local as they have gone straight to the Pipevine and began laying eggs. When they need some energy, they go over to the Butterfly Bush or Milkweed, then it’s back to laying eggs.

Poydamas On Butterfly Bush

Newborn Gulf Fritillary

texdr — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:19:11 +0000

We had a birth today. A Gulf Fritillary. Actually we had one yesterday as well but I had forgotten about that one. There are about another 4 more Chrysalises that still need to hatch.

Once this one hatched, we placed him outside on the Butterfly Bush.

Newborn Fritillary

Swallowtails Drinking Nectar

texdr — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 03:56:27 +0000

I’ve got a couple of shots of the Eastern Black Swallowtail drinking some nectar from a nearby Butterfly Bush

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Nectar

Eastern Black Swallowtail On Nectar 2

I Figured It Out

texdr — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 04:10:19 +0000

I figured out, quite by accident, that the Butterflies like the early morning (and occasional late afternoon when it’s cool) temperatures. The backyard was really full of life this morning, especially the Butterflies. There were at least 4 Gulf Fritillaries flying around, a few Monarchs, and even the Polydamas Swallowtail (the rare one I photographed a few days ago). Towards the middle of the day and early afternoon, the Butterflies were all gone.

Personally I think the early morning is the best time to take pictures in terms of the natural lighting. I also had a nice volunteer that was willing to pose. This is the Gulf Fritillary. I never really noticed how long their tongues were until I took these photos.

Click on the pictures for close up viewing

Fritillary On Coneflower 1

Fritillary On Coneflower 2

Fritillary On Butterfly Bush 1

Fritillary On Butterfly Bush 2

Life Of A Pimp, Part Two

texdr — Sun, 24 May 2009 05:12:49 +0000

So while Brutus is out stretching his wings on the Butterfly Bush, Betty Sue was born. Not wanting to have Brutus feel like he was an only child, we took Betty Sue out to meet her brother once her wings dried.

You can also really get a good idea of the difference between a male and female Monarch.

Male and Female Monarch

Betty Sue wasn’t the only female born today. She also had a sister, Bobbie Jo.

Mirror Mirror

Two chicks and one guy? A pure fantasy for Brutus, that’s for sure! However, I think he knew they were brother and sister because after he did a little showing off (see below), he flew off as well. Later this afternoon, his two sisters followed shortly after.

For those keeping count, that’s 4 Monarch Butterflies that have hatched and been released in the last two days.

Brutus D' Pimp