Gorgeous pics Sherry!!! It is hard to get the blue to show on the long tails but you captured it perfectly.

I still haven't seen one monarch this year. I know they're around and Tom has tons. But if they fly through before Friday I'll have nothing for them. The Queen cats eaten every leaf on all my milkweeds and twinvines. I haven't been able to find any milkweed this week that I can be assured is pesticide free. UF is holding 4 swamp and 4 whorled milkweed for me to pick up Friday when their end of the season plant sale starts. Hope there's no more cats out there now because they'll starve unless they eat the stems :(

Rhonda

Great pics, Sherry--very glad you finally saw one and hope you get some eggs.

It's puzzling how each species varies so much from year to year. You had a lot more Monarchs last year, no?

Don't know why, but I'm seeing more of the skippers now. I saw few in the spring. It seems that their numbers have been increasing as the year goes by. I don't know what they use as a larval source that I have. It must be something very common. I have never deliberately planted anything for them.

Beautiful photos, Sherry, and what an interesting and colorful long tailed skipper. As Rhonda said, you've captured the blue beautifully. Looks like little blue feathers. Now I've got to go look up info on him as he's new to me.

I hope your husband is feeling stronger.

... Mary

Sherry and Tom,

I'm seeing lots more skippers this year as well and like Tom I didn't plant anything in particular for them. But I've read that they host on plants in the legume family. So in my case they are most likely feeding on the wild peanut that grows in my yard. I believe that they would also then use wisteria and sweet peas as well.

Rhonda

I'm either seeing last minute monarchs or viceroys. It's hard to tell between them. I wish monarchs stayed around. Makes me sad.

I found one cat of viceroy and it enclosed and I released it was great for all my Monarch had been released.

Rhonda, still no monarchs? I read somewhere that their numbers have increased, but apparently not where you are or I am. At least you have those beautiful queens! I just received my new MW plants in the mail that I ordered from Pine Ridge Gardens in Arkansas. She operates her small nursery primarily for the benefit of nature, and she says the reason many of her plants arrive with imperfections is she uses no pesticides.

Tom, you know how when you walk through weeds by the edges of woods at this time of year, you get those 'stick tights' (triangular shaped seeds that stick to your clothes) all over you? Those seeds come from Desmodium plants, a member of the pea family that the LTSs around here use. I've raised them myself on it. Here's a caterpillar whose picture I made a few months ago -

Yes, I did get more monarchs last year, even had the privilege of raising a batch of them myself in late summer. Unfortunately, the female didn't leave me any eggs or cats this year.

Mary, I thought the same thing myself, that the blue area looks like feathers. Most skippers are so plainly colored, the long-tailed skippers are a treat! My husband is hanging in there, that's about all I can say. I finally told my nurse practitioner about GI problems I've had for years, she sent me to a GI specialist, I had an upper endoscopy, and it seems I have a huge hiatal hernia that will probably need surgery and an esophageal stricture. The doctor enlarged the stricture, so now I'm eating better. I had gotten down to mostly ice cream and yogurt. This little health problem is why I haven't answered on this thread until now.

Gardenfullofswallowtails, monarchs are a good bit bigger than viceroys. I haven't seen any viceroys this year, unfortunately.

jtmath2, congrats on releasing the viceroy!

Sherry

Sherry,

I'm sorry that your husband is so bad and that you aren't feeling well either. You're both in my thoughts.

But what an amazing photo of the long-tail cat!!! So unique, I've never seen one before so thanks for sharing.

Nope, still no monarchs and I was outside planting, cleaning up, mulching (free long leaf pine needles from my yard) and taking pics for quite a few hours. I still have 7 Queen cats though. Glad I was able to get 6 more milkweeds from UF on Friday.

Rhonda

Sherry,

thinking about you, too. Hope you feel better. I am kind of new here and it's weird how you come to care about people you know nothing about. Something special about butterfly people I suppose.

I felt bad today--didn't see any Monarch cats at all during the summer and there was one today. I feel bad because there is no way it's going to make it. I never raised cats so I couldn't bring it in. All I could do for it was put it in a more protected area where there are still some green Butterfly Weed leaves.

Sometimes I think I'm too sensitive, but I hate to think of even one not making it. I saw an adult last week and that concerned me, too. We are well into fall around here.

Sherry--I'm sorry to hear about the health problems in your family--I don't visit here very often, but I always enjoy your posts, you are very special; hope everything gets better.

Thanks Rhonda, notolover and Iris for the kind words!

Actually, my health is really good, my problems are just nuisances, unlike my husband's problems, which are serious. The GI specialist nurse practitioner said I am a very young 68 years old, that is my chronological age is considerably greater than my physical age. My regular NP has remarked what a great heart I have, and the GI NP said she thought I must have a heart valve, since it was so crisp - not so, it's my own heart! :0

Sherry

Notolover, you might be surprised. I had a crop of Monarch cats back in late January to February. I was worried about them and moved the ones I could see to go into garage when we were expecting a freeze. It wasn't as cold as they thought it might get, but we didn't get all the cats (it was dark) and found the ones in the yard seemed to just plug along. They would crawl down and apparently burrow under leaves to stay warm. But it does have to warm up during the day for the butterflies to be able to fly -- and they need to be able to find nectar.

We have released more than 50 Monarchs since September and we have at least 30 cats and maybe half a dozen chrysalises now -- with a bunch of eggs on the plants and butterflies laying more. I thought we would be done by now, but the warm weather has apparently given us another generation.