butterfly
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Black Swallowtail Caterpillars
I often see Black Swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes) butterflies here, but they are difficult to photograph because they are constantly in motion, even when feeding. I have a few dill plants here, courtesy of a friend, and since they are a host plant for Black Swallowtails I wasn’t surprised to see what looked like egg-laying behavior… Continue reading
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Phaon Crescent And Frogfuit
Frogfruit (Phyla nodiflora) is a native ground cover that loves to grow here. The flowers are tiny, visited by small bees and butterflies. Frogfruit is also the host plant for Phaon Crescent (Phyciodes phaon) butterflies, and I’m starting to see quite a few of them now. It’s hard to discern scale on these photos, but… Continue reading
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Common Buckeye
Here’s a Common Buckeye butterfly feeding on a Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella). If you look closely in these next photos, you’ll see a bee as well. They briefly shared the same flower, but I wasn’t able to capture that. Continue reading
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An Abundance Of Firewheels
I have three areas defined in the back yard in which I sowed wildflower seeds last fall, and I am also allowing selected volunteer plants to stay as well. In the front two areas, the predominant plant that has grown is Firewheel aka Indian Blanket (Gaillardia pulchella), which has made a magnificent display and which… Continue reading
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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
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 