Great Spangled and Spicebush Swallowtail Butterflies
Every year, I enjoy watching the butterflies on the orange butterfly plant (or weed). It's a milkweed, about 2 feet tall. I usually see my first monarch on it in June or July.
The Spicebush Butterfly was the only one while I counted as many as 10 Great Spangled Butterflies at one time on the butterfly plants.
My colony of honey bees dispatched only one bee to work the milkweed. I saw two other types of wild bees--one copper-colored and the other green.
The purple cone flower is native and another favorite of butterflies. I decided to plant it only after seeing honey bees on it at Lowe's.
I have always planted flowers but now I try to plant more native species or those that bees, butterflies, and hummingbirds like.
Note: I started this post last night while doing a presentation on nature journals and blogs at Mountain Lake Hotel last evening. On my way there, I saw a baby turkey in the road--it was able to fly to its mother a few feet away. Wished I had gotten a photo!
