Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
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Category Archives: Camera Bodies I’ve mentioned previously that we really haven’t seen many Gulf Fritillary Butterflies this year. I still think the drought has something to do with that. However, while I was out photographing the Monarch Butterflies, I noticed a smaller Butterfly chasing the Monarchs. It turns out it was a Gulf Fritillary. I’m assuming this one is…  We still have lots of Monarch Butterflies flying around the yard and even more Monarch Caterpillars. Most of the Butterflies look very clean, not like they have been migrating for several hundred miles so I’m assuming these are new releases. What I’ve also noticed is that these Butterflies are mating, and in the case of…  We’ve had around 7-8 “new” Monarch Butterflies arrive withing the last two days, but they definitely weren’t new. These poor Butterflies were as torn and worn as I’ve ever seen in Monarchs. Take a look at the male Monarch in the picture below. He has that torn upper wing and had difficulty flying from flower…  The Monarch Butterfly tagging and release continues. Beautiful sunshine today although a little chilly in the morning. We had our last (at the moment) indoor Monarch Chrysalis eclose today (it was a female). Actually she eclosed yesterday but it was very windy and cold yesterday so we decided to release her today. In addition…  With the South winds blow very strong the last few days, it’s no surprise that we have seen a decrease in migrating Monarchs. Right now we manage to see about 1 new Monarch per day, which is quite different than last week where we were seeing 15 new Monarchs per day. Tonight, just around dusk,…  I think I took this shot, but I told Leecy she probably took this picture just to make her feel good (she may have taken this picture as she was experimenting with my camera). We have lots of Honeybees right now all over the garden. Some are on the flowers, and some tend to have…  Three new Monarch Butterflies today (4 if you count the deformed wing Monarch I posted about earlier). One was a returning male Monarch that we had previously tagged. It was feeding in the early morning on the white flowers of the Butterfly Bush. The second one was one that we had not previously tagged and…  I’ve had a few people write or call me upset that their Monarch Butterflies either did not form a proper Chrysalis or that the Butterfly was born with deformed, crinkled wings. Today, I had the same experience (it’s happened many, many times). I thought I would take a moment to comment on my understanding of…  The Fall 2011 Migration of Monarch Butterflies was much slower today than the last two days. I only saw 1 untagged Monarch who didn’t appear until late in the afternoon. It was a good day for photography and Monarchs. We had 1 Monarch (a female) who eclosed today from the outdoor Butterfly enclosure. Here’s the…  Another great day for the Fall 2011 Migration of Monarch Butterflies through Houston. I saw a total of 7 today, and tagged 5 of them. There were roughly the same amount of males and females. I mentioned this on the Journey South site, but what I’m noticing this year compared to previous years is how…  I took this picture over the weekend, but since I didn’t know what kind of bird it was, I delayed posting a picture. Thanks to the bird experts I wrote (Greg and Candy), they were able to confirm for me that this is a Summer Tanager. According to Greg Lavaty these birds will breed in…  The Common Green Darner Dragonfly that I placed on the Zinnia yesterday evening was still here this morning. He was covered in a light dew and the light was just starting to fall on our second Zinnia garden.  I hope folks don’t mind more pictures of Painted Lady Butterflies. These Butterflies are so drawn to the Zinnas I can’t resist taking advantage of the photographic opportunity.  Zinnias must be full of nectar. It’s become the most popular plant in our backyard. It also appears to be the preferred location for the Painted Lady Butterflies. I did see another Monarch today and the Painted Lady chased it away.  Yea! The first Fall migrating Monarch Butterfly of 2011 (at least the first one I’ve seen) has arrived. I might have seen two, but since I only was able to take a picture of one of them, I’ll just say one for now. I spotted the male Monarch on our pink Butterfly Bush (a Hummingbird… |
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