This is an American Painted Lady on a Red Zinnia flower.

American Painted Lady Butterfly On Red Zinnia

Although I’ve seen them in the backyard before, I don’t believe I’ve ever taken a picture of the Red Admiral Butterfly.  This one was really drawn to the Lantana, and from the looks of the hind wings, it looks like it’s seen better days.

Red Admiral On Lantana

Red Admiral Butterfly On Old Purple Coneflower

Last, but not least is a Fiery Skipper Butterfly.  These things are always a challenge to photograph as they don’t stay in one place for very long.

Fiery Skipper Butterfly On Lantanta

Of course, life is not easy for a Monarch Butterfly, and while this Butterfly was just trying to warm up a bit before flying, a Honeybee (right side of the picture) decided it wanted the Purple Coneflower.  The Monarch just opened and closed his wings a few times, and that was enough to encourage the Honeybee to try another plant.

Newly Hatched Male Monarch With Honeybee In Background

In other Monarch related news, we have 4 Monarch Chrysalises that should eclose tomorrow.

Weather-wise, the wing continues blowing from the South, and it’s not expected to turn North until Tuesday.  At the same time, we are expecting some rain on Tuesday, so I’m not sure what that means for the Monarchs.

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

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

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!

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

Same Monarch, different pose.

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

Here’s another shot

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

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

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.

Last shot of the night.

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

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!

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