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.
Butterfly And Wildlife Gardening And Photography
Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Plants 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.  Here’s something you don’t see every day. We were cleaning our Butterfly enclosures this evening when this large Dragonfly flew right in there. I don’t know if he was old, confused, tired, or what, but he just stayed right there so I went and picked him up. After he stayed in the palm of my…  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…  We’re finally cooling down here in Houston (thank goodness). I think our plants like it as well, especially the Zinnias. They are really blooming right now, and it turn that has attracted Butterflies. I saw a few Painted Lady Butterflies today, and they were all focusing on the Zinnias. These Butterflies are not easy to…  Houston, we have a problem! I found 5 Monarch Caterpillars today. The problem with that is that I’ve been on vacation all week and I’ve never seen any Monarch Butterflies. Leecy gets home well before dark, and she hasn’t seen any Monarch Butterflies either. So where did they come from? Were they Monarchs migrating from…  I had quite a few Butterflies in the backyard today, much more so than normal. The Zinnia garden is attracting many insects including Honeybees, Carpenter Bees, and of course, Butterflies. The Lantana also appears to be a Butterfly favorite. This is an American Painted Lady on a Red Zinnia flower. Although I’ve seen them in…  The majority of our Ruby Throated Hummingbirds left last weekend, but we do have 2 females that remain. Honestly, I think they like it without all the males fighting over the feeders. For Fall 2011, we maybe had 10 total Ruby Throats, which has been about average the last couple of years. Back before Hurricane…  Boy did I have a thrill today (I know, it doesn’t take much). I was on a conference call while working and all of the sudden this beautiful orange bird starts feeding off of the hummingbird feeder. I had a hard time deciding if I should stay on the call or run out and try…  I need to get a few things off my chest (actually just one thing). This drought. It’s driving me nuts. This whole weather thing is driving me nuts actually. On the East Coast they’re flooding. Down here in Texas we’re drying up. Is this the effects of global warming? What will this wacky weather mean…  Finally a Butterfly appeared in the garden! We’ve seen next to nothing this entire summer. Everyone in this area just wants the Summer to be over, and to get a little rain. The Butterfly that appeared was a Gulf Fritillary and it showed up right after I was done watering the Zinnia garden.  I’m sorry I haven’t posted much lately. Now seems like a bad time to complain about the weather because of Hurricane Irene pelting the East Coast, but allow me to just briefly mention what the weather has been like in Houston where I live. I’m sure everyone has heard, Texas is experiencing “exceptional drought.” So…  The only Butterflies I’m seeing consistently right now are the Texan Crescent Butterflies. I’ve got to assume this drought is effecting the Butterflies. I’m doing all I can to keep the nectar plants adequately watered. Speaking of nectar plants, we pulled up the Indian Blanket Wildflowers. Most of them had finished blooming, and they were…  These Texan Crescent Butterflies really love our Wildflower garden. I see them on more days than not, but I tend to get distracted when I have my camera and end up taking pictures of something else. Once I took a break from taking pictures of the Purple Martins, I headed over to the Butterfly and… I found our first Cardinal nest the other day and it has 2 eggs (the second egg came about a day after the first). The eggs are about 3-4 days old. I got lucky this year (or the Cardinal felt sorry for me) in that the nest is in our Gardenia shrub, which means I… |
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