Tangled Branches: Cultivated

happenings in and around my zone 6b gardens in northern Virginia and in central Virginia

Sunday, July 06, 2008

The Butterfly Airport

Have you heard of the Fourth of July butterfly counts? I have my own undisciplined, unscientific version which consists of hanging around the Butterfly Airport (Verbena bonariensis) and watching.

OK that first picture was a moth, not a butterfly, but looks to me just like a plane taking off. I haven't been able to get a good photo of the larger scene with all the butterflies fluttering around the flowers - this is the best one.

In just a few minutes, I counted six species (maybe more; all those indistinguishable brown skippers!) - Black Swallowtail, Clouded Sulphur, Eastern Tailed Blue, Gray Hairstreak, Sachem?, and Cabbage White.

The flower in the middle picture above is Verbena hastata 'Pink Spires'. It's sort of a secondary airport for smaller butterflies.

Other butterflies seen over the weekend, but not on Verbena and not photographed, were Regal Fritillary, Common Buckeye, and some type of Crescent.

Labels: butterflies, insects, moths, verbena

Monday, August 20, 2007

Things with Wings

Want butterflies? Plant verbena!

I was just astounded at the number of nectar-sippers hovering around the Verbena bonariensis this weekend in the country. Just in casual observation, I counted at least six different species of butterflies - Tiger Swallowtail (both light and dark forms), Spicebush Swallowtail, American Lady, Zabulon Skipper, other skippers (names still elude me - sorry), and a new one for me: the Common Buckeye. If it's so common, howcome I never saw one until this weekend?

And there was a different clearwing moth there too - this time it was Hummingbird Moth, and I have an embarrassment of riches when it comes to photos. I restrained myself and only posted four of them (1,2,3,4).

And speaking of embarrassment, after Lisa wrote last week that she only gets good photos of butterflies when they're mating, I claimed never to have seen such a thing. Well, look (adults only, please). I think there will be more Snowberry Clearwing Moths.

While I was taking these photos, another absolutely huge moth landed on a tomato plant. I have only a crummy picture to prove it, but I think it was a tomato hornworm adult.

More from the crummy picture department. I tried several times to get a good picture of a hummingbird this weekend. I failed. They were almost constantly feeding on the coleus flowers in front of the house, except not when I had the camera in hand. There is a hummingbird in this picture, but I'll let you search for it yourself. I think I'll try Ki's suggestion and see if I can get some decent video instead. Check out the huge coleus plants though. The tallest ones are close to 4 feet, not counting the flowers.

Labels: birds, butterflies, insects, moths

Tuesday, August 07, 2007

Beginning of Autumn?

Well, gosh, I was going to write a post about August being the beginning of autumn, but I decided to check my archives before doing it. Good thing, too, because I was going to write very nearly the same thing I wrote a year ago. Everything I wrote then applies equally well today, except this time I have a good picture of a clearwing moth.

In that picture, it just looks like a bug, but when you see one of these hovering in front of a flower, you could swear you're looking at a tiny hummingbird.

Also, to update last year's post just a bit, Wikipedia now has a page showing the exact time of the traditional beginning of autumn. Going over to time.gov, I see that we are already 2 hours into autumn as I write this. Then why is it so darned hot?

Labels: autumn, insects, moths, seasons

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