So last week when I was gardening really hard, I came inside, got a glass of Peach Lemonade, and brought it and the bottle over to the table. I looked and Mom and said, "This is one of those days when you need the whole bottle." She doesn't laugh so I have to ask if she even gets what I'm talking about. (Mom is adorably naive sometimes.) So I explain how it's like in a bar when the bartender pours a shot and you tell him to leave the bottle. I told her even she had to have seen that in like, every Western ever made. I hate having to explain my jokes.
Well, today I've declared it a Fritillary Frenzy. FYI, we had that front come through and it rained buckets yesterday. I saw on the news where Sarasota was really flooded. But it's quite a bit cooler today and there's a nice breeze. By cooler, I mean it's 80 instead of 88. But I wanted to point out that the day after a rainy day is usually really good for butterflying. You have to figure they're all hungry from having to fast the day before, so they all tend to come out and eat. A lot. So keep that in mind next time you have a rainy day.
Let's just start with the Frit pictures. Apparently, the buds must taste pretty good.
This female was laying eggs. Checkout the second and third picture. You can see the egg emerge in the third. It's that yellow thing.
For those who are new to the thread, you need to know about my magic red pentas. You see, last year I planted pink, purple, and red pentas. I don't do white. And all year long, the butterflies overwhelmingly chose the red ones. Like, to the point where it was ridiculous. So I started referring to them as my magic red pentas because I figured the nectar must be magical. So far this year, the other colors are winning! And these are the exact same plants as last year. I only lost a couple.
Frits (and most butterflies) are also big fans of porterweed.
Back to the pentas...
Some Frit flirting going on...
One nice thing about cooler, windy days is that butterflies will stop and bask in the sun for a while. And that's usually good for some photo ops.
And now for the caterpillar portion of today's post.
I took the one that was in its J and brought it inside to pupate.
Next up - the post for everything that wasn't a Frit!
