A small post for today.

It is once again butterfly season. Below are the visitors to my garden and neighborhood that I have been able to capture on camera. I wait patiently for the sight of a Monarch and a painted lady that will sit still long enough for a video.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

One thing I love about these little discoveries is the opportunity to do a little research (I’ve been using butterflyidentification.org) on each visitor. It’s not enough for me to say “hey, look a butterfly.” I have to know its name, what part of the country it hails from, and its sex.

There are so many different species of swallowtail butterflies: giant, western, eastern, black, tiger, spicebush, anise, zebra, old world, Canadian… and the list goes on. They are all remarkably similar but those tiny details set them apart: stripe thickness, spots, color, etc. I know the tiger and the black I saw this week are both females because of the blue on their lower wings. For monarchs, there is a difference in stripe thickness and the presence/absence of certain dots.

I am fascinated by the Eastern/Western differences. This is Nebraska, but much of our migrating wildlife is in the “eastern” category, like the bluebirds and warblers. It’s rare to see a “western” anything out here.

Eastern Black Swallowtail

When we were growing up, my sister and I discovered black swallowtail caterpillars on the dill and parsley growing in our backyard. For a year or two, my sister raised them from the chrysalis stage to adulthood. There was even a memorable incident where some of the caterpillars escaped the cage my dad made and formed chrysalises elsewhere. One crawled out from the couch and across the carpet in December. They do not live long, and any butterfly that emerged during the winter would not make it to the spring.

(American) Painted Lady

The painted lady holds a special place in my heart, as there swarms of them five years ago when Nanny passed away. I wrote about them and my memories of here last year in the post “The Solace of Butterflies in the Fall.” I still expect to see hundreds of them everywhere, and am always disappointed when I don’t. The world is lonelier without them.

I happened upon this painted lady on my way to work. It is a female, because her abdomen is rounded.

“Large” Skipper

You might see these little guys everywhere: this fuzzy (not-so) Large Skipper. You may have also seen its cousin, the silver-spotted skipper, eclipsed in size by the swallowtails (who can be the span of a human hand) and the mid-size butterflies like the painted ladies and red admirals. They’re easy to overlook but I’ve learned to give them a closer glimpse. These smartphone cameras are amazing.

Gray Hairstreak

This little sweetie is a gray hairstreak, silver with orange spots on the outside, dark blue-gray on the inside. Slightly smaller than the skipper, it is also easier to overlook. During the Pandemic, a hairstreak landed on my window sill and stayed there, sheltering from the wind, for a least thirty minutes. They get their name from the two little “hairs” in the corner of each hindwing. You can see them in this photo: two black tails with a spot of white on the ends.

I am tempted go back through my photos of previous years; I know I have monarchs, painted ladies, a giant swallowtail and more hairstreaks somewhere. But today I wanted to focus on this year, the little worlds going strong around us in real time.

I will post more as I see them! Butterfly season isn’t over yet.

🦋