Yes, Susan, I'm seeing a few gulf frits, cloudless sulphurs, sleepy oranges, checkered skippers, and the 'road' red admiral is there, flitting off when a car or a walking person approaches. I don't have many flowers left, either.

Congrats on seeing them!

Sherry

Susan,

Me too! I saw an Am Lady in the yard this week. And yesterday I saw a Gulf Frit caterpillar. Like you, nectar is limited--but I do have pansies in bloom. The pansies are loving this weather. Can't believe 70 degrees on December 1st!

Preparing to spend Christmas with the kids! All of us will be together--the first in several years. Bought a Butterflies of Thailand guide from Bugguide so maybe I can ID the bugs I see.

Sandy

I live in the mid-cities between Dallas and Ft. Worth and we have not yet had a freeze. There are so many butterflies right now, except Monarchs. I raised some Monarch cats in November and the last one eclosed on Thanksgiving day. So much is still blooming to provide nectar for the butterflies - tropical milkweed, Mexican heather, asters and almost all my salvias. There are lots of mosquitos, too BTW :(

Down in Louisiana we are still blessed with Monarchs, Sulphurs, Long tail skippers and frits. We still have cats from the sulphur, Monarchs and frits in the garden and in the butterfly house. I assume the skippers are in my wysteria, but its too thick and tall for me to see any.

Had a little Snout butterfly flying around my DDs yard today. It kept landing on her arm!

Yeah, I'm not too surprised that some of y'all still have butterflies, but I have never seen them here this time of year. I still have GFs eclosing today, and Sulphurs flying here and there.

Susan

ME TOO!!!
I have RAs at my fruit feeder...need to add some new fruit for them...don't they & snouts over winter as adults? I am seeing a ton of snouts especially in & around the fallen leaves! I am just west of DFW & we have had at least 4 frosts already! Most of my nectar flowers are gone! Still seeing GFs, CLoudless Sulphurs, Orange Sulphurs as well as the RAs & Snouts!
Where do the adult sulphurs go??? Do they fly south like monarchs?
I was at the Fort Worth Botanic Garden end of last week & saw tons of BFs & there is still lots of flowers blooming there as well! I saw Varigated Frits, Queens, Checkered Skippers, Dainty Sulphurs, PLs, & Buckeyes! They especially were enjoying the orange & yellow cosmos flowers as well as Mexican Mint Marigolds!
I even have over a dozen tomatoes on my plants still! Supposed to have our next frost early next week so I will be picking the last of the green tomatoes before that! I've covered the plants & have never had tomatoes this late before! Crazy Texas weather!!!
Lila

Today it was Variegated Frits, Clouded Sulphurs, Dainty Sulphurs, American Lady. There is only one bloom of Dandelion in my DDs yard, and 3 butterflies were on it!

Sandy, so glad you get to be with the kids for Xmas! How wonderful for you.

Some of the Sulphurs may winter over - not the Cloudless or Sleepy Oranges. The Clouded is more of a cool weather butterfly - I only see it in spring and fall here in OKC. I have never seen a Snout this late, so don't know. Nor have I seen an American Lady this late or Gulf Frits for that matter. We are supposed to get snow/ice Monday next so maybe they will all fly your direction, Lila!

I think I would have more flowers if I were still watering the garden, but most of them have died out due to the continuing drought here. Just the Salvia and Cowpen Daisies persist. Both very drought hardy. I think I may have a couple of Lantana blooms still out there, but nothing else for sure. I mean, even the fall Asters are gone.

Susan

What a great picture Lila. I think I would faint if I had a queen AND a v. frit in my yard on the same plant. We have had only one siting of a queen in Ohio. I keep waiting to hear of another.

Glad to hear you gals are still seeing some stuff. The season is most definitely over up here. I think that is good. Our weather patterns are definitely shifting. Last winter barely exisited and we had all kinds of changes in our plants and wildlife. While it was fun to see thing we don't normally see, it was also a bit disconcerting.

I have linked a nice article about Cloudless Sulphur migration.

Cheers,
Elisabeth

Here is a link that might be useful: cloudless sulphur migration

Aggh..entered the message twice. I don't think I can delete it but at least I can now edit it out.

So..insert joke here :)

Elisabeth

This post was edited by bananasinohio on Thu, Dec 6, 12 at 9:47

Elisabeth, thanks for the link!!!
I took the picture of the BFs at the Botanical Gardens in Fort Worth & there was even a Checkered Skipper that joined the nectar feast but I missed getting a good picture with the other 2! I took these pictures with my Christmas present to myself...a new iPhone 5. What a difference between this phone & my old 3GS.
You can see it on the upper cosmos flower!

Darn...forecast for here says 25 degrees Monday night! And I've still got butterflies. Snouts, ladies, GFs, sulfurs, skippers, even a few Common Mestras left. And one Queen for the last 2 days. Surely the mestras wouldn't survive...they're tropical! And maybe some others, too. Hoping some will head south before then. There's a few GF cats outside and I brought 2 small American Lady cats in about a week ago. One died (parasitized), but the other one seems OK. I have a hummingbird around, but I think it's a winter resident...they do fine with freezes like this.

Hey, Linda, finally had the last GF eclose 2 days ago, They have been abnormally late (IMHO) in leaving this year. Still had adults flying around, nectaring on Cowpen Daisy and Salvia 'Lady in Red', which are the only two plants still blooming, and this is late for them, too.

Don't know much about Common Mestras. I hear they are seen in Western Oklahoma, but not here in the metro.

Susan

Hey, Linda, finally had the last GF eclose 2 days ago, They have been abnormally late (IMHO) in leaving this year. Still had adults flying around, nectaring on Cowpen Daisy and Salvia 'Lady in Red', which are the only two plants still blooming, and this is late for them, too.

Don't know much about Common Mestras. I hear they are seen in Western Oklahoma, but not here in the metro.

Susan

I brought in some GF cats earlier, haven't counted, but probably about 10. All I've seen flying today are sulfurs and ladies. Forecast is 22� tonight, but I have a feeling it won't get that low.

I saw the same two butterfly species yesterday at my DDs home, and was surprised to even see them out and about. Temps were running in the high 30s.

Susan

Two freezing nights last week, the lowest was 25.9. The GF cats...I put them back out after the freezes. The second AL cat only survived until pupation started. Poor thing! There's still some butterflies around, just not as many. Right now, there's really only two plants still blooming in my yard, white spreading lantana and rue.