Butterflies–my observations for summer 2013

I like to try to document yearly the butterflies, bees and other visitors to my flowering shrubs and whatever is currently in bloom. It helps to remember which species were most common that year and what the preferred plants were. My off-the-cuff observations for 2013: the earliest and most plentiful as the warm season began were the White Cabbage butterflies. They seemed to be everywhere at first, yet I had no caterpillars in my own garden feasting off the many brassicas I grew.  The most commonly seen type this year was the Tiger Swallowtail. I saw caterpillars twice on fennel.  I did not see *any* Monarchs until late in August and they seemed smaller than usual. The species I wish I’d seen was Mourning Cloak, but they were absent.

As for plants: I grow all kinds of butterfly weed and have the native pink in abundance by my roadside. I saw NO monarch “cats” whatsoever and hardly any visitation by butterflies although *I* certainly enjoy growing it. I saw many visiting my tall garden phlox which I have in abundance in multiple color patterns. By far, the most popular nectar plants were the butterfly bushes although there was a clear favorite by color: the mid purple-pink tones. Another huge draw was my Beauty Bower (Clerodendrum).  I had always read that the flat flowers like zinnias were a preferred landing spot, but I have seen hardly any use of them this year and I have many types including the old fashioned varieties. This was a surprise to me. I also had a large number of skippers and hummingbird moths which also showed a preference for those two shrubs and for tall sedum.

I have to wonder if the Tiger Swallowtails are more aggressive than the other species since I witnessed what appeared to be multiple air battles between the various types of swallowtails I saw. These swirling altercations could go on for long distances across the yard and last several minutes.  Another observation was the the Monarchs spent a lot of time flying rather than landing. It was as though they had a hard time finding something that really attracted them, although they would eventually land and feed for a short time. I contrast this with the behavior of the various swallowtails that would make a beeline for the chow.

Below is a gallery of photographs of the most prominently visible August butterflies seen in my yard from my last batch of uploads.  Clicking on a gallery thumb image will enlarge it and clicking on an enlarged picture leads to the next photo in line.  (I recently discovered this, so thought I’d share.)