Butterfly Garden Notes, August 9, 2016

I saw two freshly hatched monarch caterpillars on the patio milkweed this weekend.  It’s now Tuesday, and I haven’t seen them again.  They were so tiny that either I’m just not seeing them, or they were eaten.  I’m guessing the later which seems to happen a lot.

The praying mantis is still living on the patio.  I watched her climb onto the bee balm and stay there perfectly still until a skipper few near.  Then she’d turn her head around quickly ready to catch it if it came close enough.  She didn’t have any luck.  She gave up after a while and crawled away on to another plant.  I didn’t see her at all yesterday, although I’m sure she’s still lurking around someplace.

I picked up more zinnia this weekend.  These are the big, flat flower head kind.  The butterflies love them!  I was finally able to get some nice images of a fritillary nectaring on the front porch.

I have a nice variety of nectar flowers right now.  I live in such an urban section of Pasadena, that I’m amazed I get butterflies at all.  But as I was told, plant it and they will come.  And they have!

Besides the butterflies, I have failed to give the bees any credit.  This year I’ve had so many of them!  I take them for granted as I also do the hummingbirds since they are always in my garden in abundance.  I took a photo of one of the bees on the milkweed.  I’ll try and get some photos of the hummers in a future post.

So far this year I’d say I’ve had a very successful pollinator/butterfly garden.  I am hoping more caterpillars make it through their cycle to become butterflies before the summer is over.