I’m really excited about the two pathways that are going through the butterfly garden.
The brick pathway is through the first portion of the garden, which is complete. My daughter painted them years ago, but the paint has since come off, or fading a ton. I may have to scrub them clean, so she can create new designs on them again.
The stone pathway I began today to go through the second portion of the garden.
This pathway, although is very time consuming, I’m loving how it is turning out. My husband brought bricks home years ago and I never knew quite what to do with them. I started getting rid of them, a little every week, until an idea sprung.
I am now using a sledge hammer and breaking them to create another artsy pathway. It’s a huge jigsaw puzzle putting all the broken pieces together.
The best part of today, of course was watching the variety of butterflies that visited the garden while I was out there. We had monarchs, gulf fritillaries, orange barred sulphurs, great southern whites, dainty sulphurs, Cassius blue, polydamas swallowtail and one I got extremely excited about, the giant swallowtail. I sure have created an oasis!
This video shows a polydamas swallowtail, orange barred sulphur and gulf fritillary.
This morning I spent an hour in the garden walking around and enjoying the view. I spotted five different species, polydamas swallowtail, monarch, gulf fritillary, dainty sulphur and a tropical checkered skipper. Too bad they all did not want their photograph taken this morning! They are all enjoying the warm weather and blue sky, a perfect day for laying eggs and sipping some nectar.
The gulf fritillary made multiple stops at our blue porterweed, definitely one of this species favorite.
gulf fritillary
One monarch was basking in the sun in the back garden near our tomatoes, while another touched down on a half a dozen milkweed plants laying eggs in the front garden. Good thing my milkweed are becoming bushy right now, as they will be covered in baby caterpillars soon.
The North America’s monarch is truly a special butterfly. I am so glad we live in Southwest Florida where we see the monarch fluttering in, around and out of our garden year round.
According to the U.S. Forest Service these butterfly use such environmental cues as air currents and thermals for their annual migration, as they cannot survive the cold winters. I cannot believe some travel as far as 3,000 miles for their winter destination, an average of 50 to 100 miles a day, which can take up to two months to complete their journey, the U.S. Forest Service stated. The monarch butterfly weighs less than a gram.
There are a few different destinations, according to the U.S. Forest Service, with those monarchs in Eastern North America traveling to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico, and the Western North America (west of the Rocky Mountains) monarchs travel to California.
Their travel happens only during the day, as they roost at night in such areas as pine, fir and cedar trees, due to its thick canopies that provide the right warm temperature. They will also roost on peninsulas, finding the shortest distance across the water. The U.S. Forest Service said the monarchs gather along the shore waiting for a gentle breeze to help them along.
The US. Forest Service said as the days lengthen and become warmer while traveling north, those migratory butterflies will start breeding and laying eggs for a new generation. The monarchs that headed south are one generation, according to the U.S. Forest Service, but those that head north have successive generations.
Again, the U.S. Forest Service said that the first generation of monarchs are those offspring that spend their winter in Mexico. Each successive generation travel farther north with it taking three to four generations to reach Canada and the northern United States.
We are continuing to do our part in helping the monarch population thrive with No. 152 hatching today in our butterfly house, and a caterpillar finalizing its chrysalis.
The dainty sulphur is so incredibly difficult to photograph, as they are always flying, sometimes a few together, wings beating so fast. I decided to sit down near one, resulting in more than 20 photographs, as it allowed me to get closer and closer as it rested on a piece of grass. As I wrote in a previous blog, it is the smallest Florida sulphur.
This little sulphur loved sipping some nectar from a dune sunflower this morning. I believe this is called a “dainty sulphur,” which would be the smallest Florida sulphur. According to Thomas C. Emmel, “Florida’s Fabulous Butterflies,” their hindwing coloring changes in the winter and summer months. The summer months are pale yellow, and dusky green during the winter months.
