butterfly
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Common Sootywing
I’ve seen a few butterflies here this year so far, but there is not much for them to eat yet. They’re also tricky to photograph as they are flitting around — I usually end up discarding tens of photos just to get one that will do, and sometimes I fail altogether. Anyway, this Common Sootywing Continue reading
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Skippers On The Gregg’s Mistflower
Gregg’s Mistflower (Conoclinium greggii) grows equally well in Seguin and Houston, and I was already familiar with it when I planted it here. The flowering season is very long, and it is a major butterfly attractor. On this particular lunch-time visit to my pollinator garden, there were at least three butterflies that I could see Continue reading
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Migrating Butterflies Fattening Up For Their Long Journeys
It was only recently when I learned that migrating butterflies need to increase their fat content in order to have enough fuel to journey south to their wintering sites in Mexico. As delicate as they appear, I hadn’t thought about them having fat at all. Monarch butterfly larvae will only eat Milkweed leaves, but the Continue reading
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Lunch At The Pollinator Garden
We have a bench in our front porch, which faces east. So this is a favorite place for me to eat afternoon meals if I want shade, or morning meals if I want sun. Even in mid-November, here in USDA Plant Hardiness Zone 9a, there are still plenty of plants in my little pollinator garden Continue reading
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Finally, A Monarch Butterfly
I help to maintain a pollinator garden in a Seguin park, and one of the team there is a Community Scientist who monitors sightings and activities of Monarch butterflies in the garden. In that garden, there had been zero evidence of Monarch activity all year until a week ago, when we finally saw a caterpillar Continue reading
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When Wings Look Weird
When I first saw this butterfly on a Sunflower, I thought it was odd that it seemed to have an extra set of wings. A companion on the same plant looked the same, so I concluded that it’s supposed to be that way. iNaturalist told me that this was a “grass” Skipper of some sort Continue reading
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Southern Skipperling
Since I first noticed a bee visiting the biggest clump of native grasses that I have so far, I have deduced that most of the bee activity in this region is from about dawn to 10am. I have seen — and heard! — as many as 20 bees visiting this small patch at one time. Continue reading
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A Weary Clouded Skipper
This rather battered Clouded Skipper butterfly was resting on my Desert Willow tree in the morning sun. I didn’t see it feeding, although apparently its favorite flower colors are pink, purple, and white. The open blooms on this tree are a dark pink. Continue reading
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Common Buckeye
This pretty visitor appeared at my feet when I stepped out of the back door today. It’s a Common Buckeye butterfly. According to the Wikipedia description of the Common Buckeye, its habitat is open areas with low vegetation and some bare ground. Given the ravages of our current drought here and the fact that I Continue reading
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Local Pollinator Garden
In 2017, a pollinator garden was created in Seguin’s Park West at 623 N Vaughan Ave, Seguin, Texas 78155, USA. This garden is maintained by volunteers from the Texas Master Gardener Program, the Texas Master Naturalist Program, and the Native Plant Society of Texas, and I have decided to join that team. As a new Continue reading
About Me
Nature Lover.
Inquisitive Observer.
Student Gardener.
I invite you to join me on my journey to convert my sterile (from a nature point of view) new house lot to a healthy and diverse ecosystem, as I make discoveries, mistakes, and hopefully progress. I am not an expert or professional. The project started in February 2023 and the location is Seguin, Texas, USA.
Rewilding My Lot 