Those pictures are absolutely beautiful, Sherry! You really have a butterfly paradise there. Is porterweed a perennial there? I've never actually heard of it before reading this forum. I think it's so pretty! It looks more of the type of flower that hummingbirds would go to instead of butterflies. It kind of reminds me of foxgloves.
Cathy

Sherry, your butterflies are gorgeous!!!!

What camera do you use? I've been so unhappy with my latest camera. I keep looking for a new one (on fantastic sale!), but I can't decide which one.

I have never seen coral porter weed. I've had red, and I always have blue growing.

Great mix of photos. I love the purple hairstreak.

Nick, I got my coral porterweed from Almost Eden in Louisiana, and I'm glad I've got it, because it's the only type porterweed that reliably returns each spring. Red porterweed always dies over the winter (I don't even plant it any more) and the blue/purple types come back some years and not others. I've got blue/purple this year only because they had it for sale at Lowe's the last time I was there.
Lisa, I've got a simple, point-and-shoot CanonSD1000 Digital Elph. I really love it. It's real small, small enough to easily fit in my pocket, and it's got a small, rechargeable battery that lasts a long time - I used to have to recharge my Kodak battery about once a week or more, where this one only has to be recharged about ?every three or four months.
Cathy, hummingbirds occasionally nectar on porterweed, but small butterflies are the priniciple visitors.
Here's a few more pictures -
A sleepy orange on a Mexican flame vine flower -
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A cloudless sulphur on red pentas -
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A scarlet bodied wasp moth on a violet butterfly bush I used to have -
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And yellow cloudless sulphur caterpillars eating yellow Cassia/Senna bicapsularis blooms -
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Sherry

My garden is built around my husband's ham radio tower and antennae. A friend of his put a bat house on his tower for me several years ago, and I now have bats using it - they poop all over the concrete base at the bottom of the tower, so I hose it off every day. I was watering my garden today, then went to water the blueberries, which are outside the garden but nearby - it's been real hot and dry lately. When I walked by one of the bushes I must have brushed it, because there was a disturbance in the little bush, which is a replacement for one lost in the hurricane - a tree fell on the original. Anyway, there was a red bat in the blueberry bush, and it looks like she's nursing a baby! The "disturbance"/swishing noise happened because she pulled her wing up over her baby. I always carry my camera in my pocket, and I got her picture from both sides - I didn't want to scare her more than I already did, so I only used the regular setting on my camera and zoomed in. These pictures aren't too good, but they're good enough that I can ID her as a red bat. You can see her face in the first picture -
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And here's her other side - you can see the baby's little "hand" -
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I've watched the bats dropping out of the bat house at dusk, but I've never gotten a good look at them, so I didn't know what type they were - now I probably do, but last winter we came across a brown colored bat overwintering in a dead Katrina tree, so maybe she's just a lone red one and the ones in the bat house are brown, I don't know.
I've read that bats are wonderful flying insect eaters, especially liking mosquitoes, and that they're in danger because of some disease that's spreading through caves.
Butterflies are my favorites, but I love all the critters!
Sherry

The colors are perfect on that Giant Swallowtail. Great shot!

Jeff

Amazing, amazing pictures! I love the bat!

The butterfly pictures are wonderful & what a wide range of butterflies you have. The bat picture is truly amazing! Thanks so much for sharing.

Thanks, y'all!
This is off topic - like the bat - but I'm very excited that it appears blue grosbeaks must be nesting nearby. I normally see them in April during spring migration. I've read that they nest in the southeastern US, but I've never seen them after April, until now, that is. Yesterday there were two adult males trying to get some sunflower seeds from the feeder between cardinals, and I finally got a (bad) picture of one through my dining room window. They're shy and hard to photograph. Anyway, I'm blown away by their beauty and delighted to have them. My husband said the other day that they looked like "blue cardinals" - he didn't realize how right he was, because cardinals are also grosbeaks, having been called cardinal grosbeaks in the old days.
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And while I'm at it, I'll move my male common checkered hairstreak picture from the other thread to this one, plus the female CCS picture. The male is on blue/purple porterweed, and the female is on the host plant, Sida rhombifolia, which they also nectar on.
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And while I'm posting pictures, I'll post a very short video I made of the female gulf frit that's been laying eggs on my passionvines - they grow along the fence in front of my house -

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Sherry

As always they are fabulous pictures. My favorite is the American lady, he/she looks like a stain glass window. I also love the scarlet bodied wasp moth, very cool.

I'm really intrigued with your bats. Can you post a picture of the bat house? I'd love to put one up in my neighborhood. I've wanted to put up a house for owls as well.

I built a mason bee house. Right now every hole is plugged with mud. I've already built another but haven't put it up yet. The leafcutter bee's use it as well *lol*

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Excellent pics,Sherry.Were most of them taken this year?

Have you noticed fewer mosquitoes since getting the bat house?

Cardinals are grosbeaks? I never knew that! Do you have painted buntings in your area?

Dan, most of the pictures were taken in years past, but the original "post your pictures" thread asked for good pictures, not necessarily recent ones. I haven't gotten any pipevine swallowtail eggs this year, my first year to be without them in a while. :( A gorgeous male visited today and spent hours (I'm not kidding) nectaring on my Ellen's Blue butterfly bush. I took his picture repeatedly, but none of them were any good. You know how they flutter incessantly, and it messes up the picture! Now if he would just bring an egg-bearing female - my pipevines are huge!!
Painted buntings are supposed to occur in this area, but they're rare, and unfortunately I've never seen one. My brother used to live in an apartment right on busy Hardy Street in Hattiesburg, right across the street from USM. One year he asked me about this unusual little bird that he'd seen in a bush by a window in his apartment - he described a male painting bunting! He wasn't a fibber, so I assume he didn't make it up.
We were having lots of mosquitoes, and now we're not, but I don't know if the bats have anything to do with that - they sure can't hurt, though. I've read that little is known about the exact diet of bats - seems like they'd have examined the stomach contents of bats at some point to find out. Cardinals are indeed grosbeaks, but now days they don't call them grosbeaks - they're still on the same page in your bird field guide with the other grosbeaks, though.
Edna, I used to have an owl house, where I got screech owls. I'd been meaning to replace it since it fell off the tree it was nailed to, but the hurricane came, and somehow I never got around to it. Your mason bee house is great! Certain bees (carpenter bees?) just use my front porch chairs - they leave a pile of sawdust behind them. Being the critter lover that I am, I just let 'em do it.
I took this picture of the bat house by zooming in. It's about ?25' up, and it's only about 1' tall and equally as wide, not very big. It's been up there for a long time without any bats using it, so I'm glad it's being used now.
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Sherry

I love your posts with the pictures of all the critters. I love having a yard full of critters.

Bats eat more than their weight in mosquitoes in an evening. So the bats are taking care of your mosquito population. I learned that from a book I read with my students when I was teaching reading. We used to read lots of science books as the boys related to the topics.

Sandy

Thank you, Sherry. I've heard of bat houses but never heard of anyone who actually got activity from hanging one. I'm going to attempt to make one.

I have carpenter bee's as well. They have just about taken over my fence. Like you, I just leave 'em.

Be patient,Sherry.I am sure you will eventually be overwhelmed with Pipevine eggs and cats.I almost wish I had installed a root barrier for my pipevines (A.durior),as they are literally taking over my small yard.

Painted Buntings are supposedly difficult to observe,as they stay hidden in dense foliage most of the time.If you are ever lucky enough to see one,try and get a pic for us.The female is one of the only truly green birds in North America,btw.

Edna,

Here's some bat house plans...

Here is a link that might be useful: Free Bat House Plans

The heat lately has been horrible! It was supposed to get up to 100 degrees today - the highest reading on my thermometer was 99 degrees briefly, but it may have reached 100 when I wasn't looking.
I watered my garden again, and when I went to wash off the bat poop there wasn't any. I noticed for the past several days that there was less and less poop, so I'm guessing they're "hanging out" in the woods, where it's cooler.
I sure hope I get overwhelmed with pipevine eggs, Dan! The beautiful male was in the garden again today, nectaring on my Ellen's Blue butterfly bush. I made a lot of pictures of him again, all of which were blurry, again - they fly so fast! - but I decided to load this one to Photobucket and say it's impressionism. So here's my Monet pipevine swallowtail -
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Sherry

That's the best one yet,Sherry! You should enter it in a photo contest cause it would probably win.

Jaw dropping gorgeous.

Thank you, Larry. I think I can do that.

I'm so glad you clarified about when the pictures were taken. I was sitting here thinking, "I don't have tithonia in bloom yet!" "My red porterweed that managed to survive a winter doesn't even have a spike!"

The blue/purple porterweeds are blooming but only because they were good-sized cuttings that I kept over inside. Sennas from seed are just little things. If it weren't for lantana, lilies and pentas, there would be little nectar here right now.

I wonder if the nectar is hot when they visit plants in the sun? It's so hot, birds abandon the dripping water birdbaths to play in the spray from soaker hoses.

Nell

Nell, my tithonias/Mexican sunflowers are blooming now, have been for about a week or ten days. I haven't got a picture of any butterflies on them, though. My blue porterweed has been blooming for a while, but that's because I bought it at Lowe's this year - it was in a green house before it got to Lowe's. My coral porterweed is growing, but not blooming yet.
I've been refilling the water in my bird bath with cold water every day, plus letting water soak the ground in a few spots of bare earth, so the butterflies that like to "nectar" on the ground can do so.
I made a list of things I need to do outside, but I haven't done any of them, because it's so hot!
Sherry

I made this picture today of a black female tiger swallowtail, Nell -
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Sherry

The pics make me want to move to Mississippi.

Thanks KC, and come on down! Just be sure to move to the country - my mother lives in town in Hattiesburg, and I rarely ever see a butterfly there.
Sherry

I am with you guys! What a butterfly paradise. And I still love the fact that you get those great saturnid varieties of moths. I might have some trouble getting used to the heat but I have lived in FL and NY and Indiana so I am sure I would adjust. Please keep on sharing those pics. Murray

OMG... hope that i can have a garden in my how for many butterfly, it's very beautiful