Gulf Fritillary On Coneflower And Bee Flying

Here’s another shot with the Gulf Fritillary on a Marigold.

Gulf Fritillary On Marigold

This last shot I really like as well.  We have lots of Purple Coneflower right now, all growing because Leecy saved the seeds from last year.

I like how the eye is drawn to the foreground Coneflower and Butterfly, but it appears as a nice pleasing background with all the other Coneflowers slightly blurred.

Gulf Fritillary On Field Of Purple Coneflowers

This particular Spicebush appeared to be younger than the one I saw last week who had the tattered wings.  It was really enjoying getting nectar from the Penta.

Spicebush Feeding On Penta

The shot below was done using a different technique than I normally use, but I like the result.  I like how I was able to blur the foreground Penta and focus on the Butterfly and Penta towards the back.

Spicebush Feeding On Multiple Pentas

It was hopping all around the Purple Coneflowers getting nectar.  This is not an easy Butterfly to get pictures of, especially with their wings open!

Pearl Crescent Wings Open

Here’s a picture with the wings closed.  It was resting on the Spicebush plant.

Pearl Crescent Wings Closed

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

Today we saw our first Gulf Fritillary of the season for 2010.

All the Purple Coneflowers that we have this year are from Leecy planting the seeds from previous seasons.

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Coneflower

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Coneflower 2

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!

In this first image, the Swallowtail is getting nectar from one of our Penta plants.

Giant Swallowtail Feeding On Penta

These next two images are “almost” the same, but one of them contains a notorious Butterfly Caterpillar killer.  These pictures are a little unusual as well (at least to me) because the Giant Swallowtail is getting nectar from the Milkweed plant, which is the Host Plant for Monarch Butterflies.

Giant Swallowtail Feeding On Milkweed With Wasp

Giant Swallowtail Feeding On Milkweed

I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned this favorite plant for Hummingbirds before.  It’s called a Coral Honeysuckle and Hummingbirds are really supposed to love it.  We have two of these plants, one is in the front yard area and only gets partial sun and the other is in the backyard and gets full sun.  The one in the front has lost most of its leaves, the one in back is doing great.  I probably need to replant the one in the front, but I don’t know where I would put it.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird Feeding On Coral Honeysuckle

Besides the Coral Honeysuckle, these current Hummingbirds are flying to these others nectar plants like flies on poop.  For the life of me, I still can’t recall what the name of this plant is.  I’m pretty sure it’s a Salvia, but I can’t recall what kind.  I may have to send an email to Joshua and get his expert opinion.

These plants are in the worst possible place for good pictures, but they are in a great place for growth and the comfort of the Hummingbirds.  I say they are not in a good place for pictures because 99% of the day it is pretty shady where they grow and the background is nothing but a fence and a large Pussywillow tree.  Thus, the majority of the pictures that I may get from this area are going to have strong shadows as I am having to use a lot of flash.  What I do like about the picture below is it looks almost 3-dimensional.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird Flying Towards Salvia

On this last picture, shows the Ruby Throat actually feeding off of the Salvia.  In just thinking about it, I’m guessing the hummers like this area so much as it makes them feel more protected by all the plant cover.

Ruby Throated Hummingbird Feeding On Salvia

While I try and research what plant this is, if anyone else has ideas, I would sure welcome them.

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!