Awesome shots Linda! Wow, the white Mistflower sure seems to attract those beautiful American Ladies! I'm not familiar with that plant but it sure is pretty. The flowers remind me of my Climbing Hempvine (Mikania scandens) which only seems to attract bees and moths. I really like your pretty picture of the Common Mestra, another new one to me, such a dainty little butterfly. And, what a perfect view of the Snout with it's wings spread! My Florida butterfly book says the American Snout is occasional to common in the state of Florida but I've never seen one and it sure is a cool looking butterfly!

We've had temperatures 15º - 20º below normal the past weeks or so and I haven't been seeing much in the way of any butterfly or moth activity. It's been cloudy, cool, damp and windy; and yesterday it only reached @ 57º ... this is not our normal Florida weather! The sun is finally shining today and it's supposed to be about 70º, still rather windy but at least we're finally seeing the sun.

Keep those great photo's coming!

These are among my visitors this week. They come to gladly drink sweet nectars. The Red Admirals were not only on the hummer feeder, but also were spotted out on my truck trying to feast on juniper berries that had fallen there, so I was reminded to buy bananas for those fruit feasters. I gave thanks for the company of the butterflies on that day when we are reminded once again to be grateful for all we have.. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone (for me, this whole weekend is Thanksgiving also...not the Black Friday stuff (which is little by little taking over the whole week)!
A skipper on a petunia and a Red Admiral on a hummingbird feeder.

A Queen and a couple of Monarchs.

Nice Linda!
I'm afraid we have probably seen the last of our butterflies for a while as it's supposed to be 31 tonight & tomorrow night too. Haven't seen any butterflies today.

Linda, I agree with Ann ... very nice! You are so fortunate to still be seeing so many flutterby's!

I haven't seen very many butterflies or bees lately but this morning I spotted a Gulf Fritillary and a few Bees hanging out around the fading Pentas blooms:

Lucky you Lin! Gulf Fritillary!

Ann: It was great to see one so late in the year; we usually see the Gulf Fritillary Butterflies around here from mid April through the summer months. They love the Wisteria in spring time and Echinacea and Pentas seem to attract them through the summer months. These are two pictures of a Gulf Frit that I took in my backyard in 2010:

Beautiful frits (& b's 2).

Thanks J!

I sure miss the Hummingbirds, Butterflies and Bees late in the year. I'm hoping we don't have an extremely cold winter (although we've already had some unusually cool weather for this time of year.) Last week the weather folks were reporting that we were 15-20º below normal for this time of year. We were experiencing temp's that we usually see in January - mid 60's days and mid 40's at night! Some of us "older" Floridians are wimps when it comes to winter temperatures. I don't mind nights in the 30's and 40's but I'd prefer sunshine and daytime temperatures in the 70's.

We've had a few temps in the high 30's, but no freeze yet. Mostly it's been fairly warm otherwise, but now it's cooling down a bit.. Has been dry for about a month or so. We really need rain! Nice pics, Lin! We've got a few Gulf Fritillaries left also. The P. caerulea has just bare stems left, but some of the other passies still have some foliage.

I'm seeing a few Gulf Fritillary lately ... all with chewed wings! Poor things sure have to contend with a lot during their travels.

I brought in some Gulf Fritillary caterpilllars on Monday, to spare them any temps in the 20's.It was 25.9° last night, the lowest temp we had. Have seen American Ladies, sulfurs and Red Admirals flying around the last couple of days. And one I didn't expect to survive...a single Common Mestra I saw this morning!

kqcrna said:We spent last week in Florida, in this rented beach house. You can see lots of vegetation between ocean and house.

That vegetation was covered with butterflies all afternoon


Karen

Karen

How did you find that area in FL? Looks wonderful!

kqcrna said:Lin, we were in Cape San Blas.
http://goo.gl/maps/1WO9k

It's a wonderful place- no hotels, no hi-rise condos. So no crowds. Here's the beach at mid day last week.


I have no idea what those plants are. Undoubtedly something that doesn't grow in Ohio.

Karen

Looks like a place I'd love to with DH on our next vacation in FL!

(wanted to quote both of these two, but didn't know how and/or if it could be done)

Marilyn said:

Karen

How did you find that area in FL? Looks wonderful!

It's a wonderful place to vacation but only if you're
older
boring, not looking for night life or exciting entertainment
willing to drive 10 miles or more to a restaurant
a beach lover
a book lover
etc.

We go there to read, relax, sleep, and swim in the ocean. It's a quiet place, all homes with a few low rise condos, no hotels, no restaurants, no big cities close by. But for us, it's heaven. The beach is private, almost deserted most of the time.

Karen

kqcrna said:It's a wonderful place to vacation but only if you're
older
boring, not looking for night life or exciting entertainment
willing to drive 10 miles or more to a restaurant
a beach lover
a book lover
etc.

We go there to read, relax, sleep, and swim in the ocean. It's a quiet place, all homes with a few low rise condos, no hotels, no restaurants, no big cities close by. But for us, it's heaven. The beach is private, almost deserted most of the time.

Karen

Sounds like our kind of place! DH is 60 and I'm 57. When DH and I go on vacation, we just want to go and relax! We just want peace and quiet!

What city (cities) do go to for a bite to eat?

How did you find out about this area?

We've been going to Madeira Beach, FL (west of Tampa) on the Gulf coast in the Winters at a place that is for 21 and older adults.

The place you're talking about sounds heavenly!

Port St. Joe or Apalachicola

Karen

I had brought in 2 little American Lady caterpillars a while ago. Sadly, neither one survived. The first one was definitely parasitized, died while still small. The other made it until it tried to pupate yesterday before it died. There are still a smaller number of butterflies out there. The Gulf Fritillary caterpillars I rescued and took in before the freezes are back outside now. The lowest temp it got to here was 25.9 degrees.