I started this site last year when I was first introduced to the staggering amount of butterflies both here on my farm and in the nearby Patoka River National Wildlife Refuge, but haven't been able to keep it up much. I hope to rectify that, starting now...partially because this has been a strange year so far. I wish I would have kept better track of sighting dates last year, because it seems like we're way behind this year. I'm not sure if it was the rough winter we had or if there's some other reason, but we've just not had the amount of butterflies we had last year. My butterfly bushes died all the way back over the winter and are just now starting to bloom, but I've got tons of coneflowers and other butterfly-attracting blooms in my beds, and visitors are few and far between this year. So I will use this blog to log and tag sightings to check next year.
Last year, we had hundreds of the various morphs of Tiger Swallowtails; this year, I've only seen one. I haven't seen a single Clearwing, either. We're way early on Monarchs though; I've been seeing them for months now, all over the place. I've seen a couple Red-Spotted Purples, a single Red Admiral, a couple Great Spangled Fritillaries, a Pipevine Swallowtail, and a few of the Cabbage Whites and various Sulphurs. I've only seen a handful of Viceroys, too, and they were absolutely everywhere last year. On the other hand, I do believe I've seen a Zebra Swallowtail in the refuge twice now; I just haven't been able to get a photo to positively identify it (fingers crossed!). So here starts my sighting log.
Last year, we had hundreds of the various morphs of Tiger Swallowtails; this year, I've only seen one. I haven't seen a single Clearwing, either. We're way early on Monarchs though; I've been seeing them for months now, all over the place. I've seen a couple Red-Spotted Purples, a single Red Admiral, a couple Great Spangled Fritillaries, a Pipevine Swallowtail, and a few of the Cabbage Whites and various Sulphurs. I've only seen a handful of Viceroys, too, and they were absolutely everywhere last year. On the other hand, I do believe I've seen a Zebra Swallowtail in the refuge twice now; I just haven't been able to get a photo to positively identify it (fingers crossed!). So here starts my sighting log.