A view from Wayne and Christina's backyard deck of their beautiful butterfly garden in bloom.  This garden was created by removing all the grass in a
small urban backyard (the entire property.......front yard, house and backyard sits on a 1/4 acre lot).  Anyone can do it !!!  So start planting today.
. . . . . . . . . . . . Hummingbird Moth . . . . . . . . . . . . .
This day-flying moth can easily be mistaken for a
hummingbird or a large bumble bee (but they can't
sting or bite).  They are frequent visitors to our
flowers. They feed exactly as a butterfly does...from
a long tube called a proboscis that slurps up nectar
and gets covered in pollen as it visits different
flowers, so it makes a good pollinator of plants.
. . . . . . . . . . . . Cool Dragonfly . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Dragonflies of all different sizes and colors love
to hang out around the fish pond and also patrol
the yard hunting for mosquitoes and other flying
insects, that they catch with their long legs held
out in front of them like a bug-catching net.
A tray of old, mushy fruit will attract many
different species of butterflies that prefer this
sort of food over flower nectar.  But be warned,
other insects such as bees, wasps and flies will
also come to dine.  Raccoons and opossums may
raid the food at night if they live in your area.
Here's how many lovely butterflies we
hand-raised and released in  2006
from eggs collected from our own gardens




1,275
Black swallowtails
Giant swallowtails
Pipevine swallowtails
Spicebush swallowtails
Tiger swallowtails
Zebra swallowtails
Question marks
Commas
Red admirals
Red-spotted purples                pipevine swallowtail
Viceroys
Monarchs
Clouded sulphurs
Cloudless sulphurs
Orange sulphurs
Cabbage whites
American snouts
Dusky wings
. . . . . . . . . . . A bird with a sweet tooth . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Here is one of our many cute little hummingbirds that
enjoy drinking sugar water from these types of feeders.
Notice this is a female...the males have bright red shiny
feathers on their neck under their beak, hence they are
called ruby-throated hummingbirds...the only species of
hummingbird that we see here in Kentucky.
. . . . . . Coming in for a landing . . . . . . .
Yellow finches spend a lot of time in the
garden eating flower seeds.  They
especially enjoy pulling seeds off the
old blooms of cone flowers, sunflowers
and these lavender verbena flowers.  
Hey look, a monarch butterfly thinks
these flowers look delicious too!
 
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photo, please contact Judy Burris at admin@butterflynature.com
This garden won the 2006 Gardener
Recognition Award from the
Cincinnati Horticultural Society !
Life cycle of the Baltimore Checkerspot (Euphydryas phaeton)
The caterpillars of
these lovely butterflies
feed on turtlehead
(Chelone glabra) and
English plantain
(Plantago lanceolata)
Skipper on verbena.
Spicebush caterpillar...look at those
cute false-eyespots near his head.  
Click on the photo (to enlarge) to see
the tiny blue heart shapes on his
pink legs.  Do you think he looks
like a little snake?
Large garden spider
This little brown bunny decided that
our poppy flower leaves made a
delicious salad.
We found this cute tree frog hiding in
the leaves of our hosta plants.  They
have sticky feet, and sometimes like
to hang on the glass of sliding doors.
After a rain they can be heard calling
to each other in the woods.
Zebra Swallowtail on lupine flowers.
2007 Butterflies

found as eggs, we lovingly hand-raised the caterpillars inside
our homes and released into our gardens as adult butterflies

we raised 1,267 butterflies this year
"The Life Cycles of Butterflies" by Judy Burris and Wayne Richards
Zebra Swallowtails               Buckeyes
Black Swallowtails               Monarchs
Pipevine Swallowtails           Sulphurs
Tiger Swallowtails                Viceroys
Spicebush Swallowtails         Commas
Giant Swallowtails                Snouts
Baltimore Checkerspots       Hackberry
Red-spotted Purples             Duskywing
Question Marks
We were watching a Question Mark
butterfly lay eggs on Wayne's hop
vines.....Christina must have been
standing too close, because the
butterfly landed on her shirt and put
3 eggs on her !
Here is a Red-spotted Purple
butterfly egg (greatly enlarged) we
found on the tip of a willow leaf.  
When the caterpillar hatches, it will
eat the leaf but leave the center
vein....must be too tough to chew.
Here's a nice little Sulphur butterfly
resting on some zinnia flowers.  
Notice the green eyes and the pink
fringe around the wings.
Here's a photo of a cool
lizard we saw clinging to
the side of a tree.
When butterflies emerge from their chrysalis, their wings are wet
and folded.  They need to expand and dry before flight is possible.
A monarch made its
chrysalis on the elbow of
Judy's garden statue.
Chrysalis
Thank you Elisabeth from Ohio for
identifying this as a Brown Anole
lizard ~ a native of Cuba and
tropical islands.  This picture was
taken at a park in Cincinnati.
2008  Butterflies

Our first butterflies emerged from their winter
chrysalises on April 21

species list:
Zebra swallowtail - Pipevine swallowtail
Black swallowtail - Spicebush swallowtail
Tiger swallowtail - Giant swallowtail
Hackberry Emperor - Sulphur
Pearl Crescent - Snouts
Monarchs

count for this year = 889
(updated on Oct. 29)
Click on a photo to enlarge