Butterflies And Wildlife » Purple Coneflower

Pearl Crescent Butterfly

texdr — Mon, 05 Jul 2010 22:34:39 +0000

I found a new Butterfly that we’ve never seen in the backyard before. It’s a Pearl Crescent.

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

First Gulf Fritillary Of The Season

texdr — Sun, 20 Jun 2010 01:24:55 +0000

These Purple Coneflowers are really attracting all kinds of Butterflies.

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

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!

Female Monarch On Coneflower

texdr — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 01:09:53 +0000

I found around five Monarch Caterpillars feeding on Milkweed. There were also two females flying around getting nectar from various plants.

Here’s a female Monarch sipping nectar on a Purple Coneflower.

Female Monarch Sipping Nectar On Coneflower

Same Monarch, different pose.

Female Monarch On Coneflower

Queen Butterfly On Coneflower

texdr — Sun, 16 Aug 2009 21:24:53 +0000

We did have a Queen Butterfly hatch from a Chrysalis yesterday. This may be her.

Here’s a Queen Butterfly sipping nectar on a Purple Coneflower.

Queen Sipping Nectar On Coneflower

Here’s another shot

Queen On Coneflower

Friday Night Hummingbirds

texdr — Sat, 08 Aug 2009 03:59:22 +0000

As promised, here are some Ruby Throated Hummingbird pictures.

In these first 2 pictures there was a Hummingbird somewhat distracted by this Milkweed Bug on the feeder.

Hummingbird And Bug

He/She quickly got over the bug and went about drinking nectar.

Hummingbird Drinking

In this next set, I used a little Lightroom creativity because I didn’t care for the background so much. However, I did feel kinda lucky to get this picture of a Hummingbird sipping nectar from a Purple Coneflower. Honestly, I didn’t even realize they would even attempt to go to these plants to get nectar.

Hummingbird Coneflower

Last shot of the night.

Hummingbird Coneflower Side

Monarch On Coneflower

texdr — Sun, 21 Jun 2009 04:32:10 +0000

Here’s a picture of a Monarch on a Purple Coneflower. Previous to this Monarch gathering up some nectar, it was flying in and out of the water produced by the sprinkler. That lead me to think of an interesting observation. While I have no idea if this just because of the lack of rain and incredible heat wave we are experiencing, but Butterflies and Dragonflies appear (at least to me) that they enjoy flying through the spraying water from a sprinkler system.

Monarch On Purple Coneflower

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

What A Lady!

texdr — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:47:13 +0000

I haven’t seen too many Painted Lady Butterflies in our backyard, but that is starting to change. The last two days there have been American Painted Lady Butterflies landing on our Coneflowers.

This particular Butterfly is an American Painted Lady Butterfly. They are NOT easy to photograph. Compared to the casual flying Monarch, these suckers act like they have ADHD. They do not sit still for long!

American Painted Lady

American Painted Lady On Coneflower

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