In addition to Monarchs, several other kinds of butterflies have been visiting and partaking from our milkweed. An often seen visitor is the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, one of the most common butterflies of Eastern North America. The one shown below was quite willing to stop once in a while to allow me to take its pictures.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on milkweed.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on milkweed.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on milkweed.
Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on milkweed.
These are beautifully, elegantly framed, photographed, and processed! Another species that I miss. 🙂
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Those Swallowtails are quite lovely … 🙂
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Thank you Julie!
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Strikingly beautiful captures, Hien! Gorgeous detail and colors!
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Thank you Donna!
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Nature is so beautiful!
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It is, and also so diverse.
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Gorgeous captures of this beauty, Hien!
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Thanks Helen!
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Stunning photos! Gorgeous butterflies 😍😊
Ciao
Sid
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Thank you very much, Sid!
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Lovely set of close up shots, Hein. Wonderful clarity in your shots. You captured a lot of detail there. The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail has very bold coloured wings, and it looks every bit the eye catching butterfly. Currently here in Australia it’s winter and we aren’t seeing too many butterflies around. Hopefully some warm days soon and they just might pay us a visit 🙂
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Thank you Mabel! I keep forgetting that at the moment it is winter where you are. Right now it is more than 90°F (32 °C) here, way too hot, and it is hard for me to picture a winter scene. I looked up butterflies from Australia, and saw that you have many species, and most are really colorful. I wonder if they are natives of the continent, or migrated there from other parts.
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Winter here in Melbourne, Australia is pretty mild…but when you factor in wind chill on a 12’C day (53’F) it can feel below 0’C. It doesn’t snow where I am either. We do have many species of butterflies here in Australia, probably very different from what you normally see. A lot of butterflies here find home the north of Australia, up in Queensland, where the weather is more tropical compared to Melbourne where it is dry.
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What a beautiful butterfly!
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Thanks Emma!
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Stunning! I see that your skills as a flower photographer carries over to butterflies too.
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Thank you Jerry! Butterflies are easier to photograph than birds.
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I’m not so sure about that. Butterflies seldom sit still, and getting them in good light with their wings open is often impossible.
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How lucky are you that a beauty like this can be a regular in your garden, Hien!
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Thank you Dries!
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I have a little patch of a butterfly and hummingbird garden here in Florida and yes, the Tiger Swallowtail loves the milkweed too as well as the Zebra Swallowtail. I think I will have to plant more of them next year.
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Wow, Zebra Swallowtail! I haven’t seen one yet. What kind of milkweed did you plant?
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They are the annual milkweed that the nurseries stock. I have them in yellow and multicolor. They are very popular with the Monarchs of course. I have a bumper crop of the Monarch caterpillars right now. Much to my dismay there was one red wasp feasting on one of the caterpillars.
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Caterpillars, wow! Not here yet, unless the birds got them first. Thank you for responding to my question.
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You’re welcome.
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O.K. Going back to the Milkweed and caterpillars. It turned out that I had way too many caterpillars for the amount of plants I had. The milkweeds were decimated in no time and the caterpillars went looking for food. I went to Lowe’s and bought some more milkweed plants. However, these are perennials. Silky Gold Milkweed. Upright Perennial. “Asclepias curassavica “Silky Gold”. Bloom time Summer and Fall.
The ones I got tonight are not blooming yet, but I am sure the caterpillars only want the leaves to nibble on. I had no idea that they also came as perennials, not only annuals. I’ll be curious to watch the progress of these latest plants. I bought 7 of them.
As a bonus we found two Chrysalis this evening.
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I think my milkweed (Asclepias Incarnata) is a perennial. Planted from seeds three years ago, it has been coming back every spring since then.
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That is good to know.
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Hien–these are beautiful. Absolute perfection–each one.
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Thank you so much Lois!
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So beautiful!
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Thank you Eliza!
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Amazing portraits of this beautiful butterfly species,she looks rather busy and intoxicated by the milkweed nectar.Great set of photos,Hien!
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Glad you like these butterfly photos, Doda! They liven up the garden with their constant fluttering about.
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Absolutely Hien.
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So beautiful! We have had a few Tiger and Black Swallowtails this year.
Such a treat to see.
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Thanks Sandy! This is the first year we have Swallowtails. I saw a black one too and will try to get its photo.
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Pretty neat. See that you managed to get perfect/detailed shots of the swallowtail’s frame! Lovely.
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Thank you so much!
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