Question Mark on a wall...the lighting gave it quite a shadow!


A Queen came in from somewhere! In December, too, how did that happen? Poor thing, and the cold front is coming in tomorrow!

Good afternoon everyone! Just came in from a full morning of picking weeds, and while there were many butterflies still fluttering about…It was this that stopped me in my tracks! So happy, happy, happy!!!!

Out watering the orchids today and saw a few butterflies.

I think this is the same male Monarch that was flying around the other day. It took about ten minutes for him to settle down and land on something. I was about to go in when he finally settled on the flower.



I also still have Long-Tailed Skippers flying around.



And I have some baby Monarch caterpillars. Here's one of them.

No pictures today, but Mom saw a Queen butterfly laying eggs on the milkweed out front (and felt the need to wake me up to tell me this). Hopefully, I'll see the caterpillars in a week or so but I don't have the best luck with Queens for some reason.

I know, Melanie, I had almost half of the Queen cats die this year! Nice pics, Terra and Melanie!

Mom said she saw the Queen again earlier today, and as we were standing around talking, here she came zooming by! I only got one good pic of her because she kept flying around.



There were also two Monarchs flying in the yard but I only managed to shoot this one picture. Looks like the same male I've been photographing for the last week.



Of course, this means I have caterpillars. This is the only big guy, but I found a smaller one and lots of eggs.



Still lots of Long-Tailed Skippers although this guy was missing his tails. Maybe that's why he was slow enough to get a picture of!



I tried, but couldn't get a picture of, a smaller brown-colored skipper that was on the porterweed. The bigger Long-Tailed Skippers chased him away. Frankly, I'm surprised there was this much activity because it's so cloudy. It's in the low-80s though so I guess it's still warm enough for everyone.

Lovely!

Just a couple of pics from the museum today. It rained last night or this morning and it's about 65 degrees outside. We have a heat lamp in the flight cage to keep everyone warm when it gets too cold. There was one Zebra Longwing flying around but everyone else was just hanging out on the screen.

Here's the happy Zebra Longwing.



And here's one of two Gulf Fritillaries I released.



I got home and saw these two Monarch cats lined up in a row. There was a third one higher up on the plant. Yesterday, I only saw one so I don't know where the other two were hiding but this morning they were all munching away.

Thanks for the acorns folks! I'm going to have to pick out a new badge. Maybe the bromeliad one? They were my first love before butterflies and orchids and I already have those badges. Since you're all so appreciative, here's a couple more pictures I took during halftime (the Bucs are losing, no surprise there).

Here's a Monarch. He was a little slower today, probably because it's so cool and cloudy outside.



I knew I had Monarch cats out front, but I hadn't found any in my "actual" butterfly garden on the side of the property. Well, I saw a baby one like weeks ago. But today I saw five big, fat caterpillars. Most were on the Tropical Milkweed, but one was on the Giant Milkweed. I took a picture of these two. The one looks like he's hanging on for dear life!

Butterflies are happy today! Lots of flying around the front yard.

I finally got a decent picture of the Queen. She's still laying eggs.



Still lots of Long-Tailed Skippers.



And there are two Monarchs but this was as close as I could get to one before they'd take off.

Quite the beauty she is too! Great pics.

What is the secret to photographing butterflies? They seem to have very good eyes and watch me like a hawk - pardon the mixed metaphor.

A good long lens!

Being patient and learning to stay still! Some species are better than others about letting you get close. And some nectar longer than others which allows a couple of seconds to take a picture. But having a good zoom feature is definitely helpful!

See what you think. I stood still like an Easter Island statue despite several thousand mosquitoes lined along my limbs.

Beautiful pics.! Hope those mosquitos didn't eat you alive!

Very nice! I couldn't have held still. Mosquitoes make me crazy!

Many thanks! I took them with zoom and sports setting (multiple pictures with one button push). I haven't got the knack yet with close ups to somehow make the camera focus on the object of desire. It seems to won't to pick nearby things to focus on.

I know what you mean, Glen…Mine does the same thing! Still learning, and trying to figure it out!

The Queen is still out there laying eggs on all the milkweed.



And one of my Monarchs made his J.