As I was doing my fall cleanup in the garden, I was surprised to find an unexpected fall visitor: an early stage Black swallowtail caterpillar munching on an Italian flat parsley leaf.
I knew parsley, along with dill, are host plants for Black swallowtail butterflies. But I hadn’t seen any swallowtail caterpillars on my dill or parsley plants all year.
Until this week.
Continue reading Photo of the Week: An Unexpected Fall Visitor
With my plans to create a more bird and butterfly friendly yard, last year I replanted one of my flowers beds with Swamp Milkweed and other native Michigan plants. The milkweed plants had a couple blossoms last summer, which surprised me. From my research, I understood it would take a year for milkweed to establish… Continue reading Photo of the Week: Monarch Butterfly on Swamp Milkweed
It’s a small butterfly.
And when you’ve found a life bird, a bird you’ve never seen before, you might not notice a small butterfly that lights on the ground 10 feet in front of you as you carry your spotting scope and binoculars after a 1 1/2 mile trek on a late summer afternoon.
Continue reading Photo of the Week: Fiery Skipper Butterfly