Triple front yard butterfly sighting

For the past few weeks, many butterflies have been swarming the Austin area. This morning, I spotted three different beauties. Seeing them usually stops me in my tracks.

Fall is butterfly season in Austin

Butterflies are active in Austin for most of the year, but fall features a splendid of the fluttering beauties. It's like a second spring.

A queen butterfly, a close relative to monarchs, takes a sip of nectar from Gregg's mistflower in my backyard pollinator garden.

Tiny blue butterfly on blossom

A tiny blue butterfly flits from blossom to blossom at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

A bouquet for two

A fly and tiny butterfly share a cluster of flowers at the Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

Butterfly hides

Some butterflies are hardly noticeable. Blending in can mean the difference between eating or being eaten. This muted beauty gently flapped its wings on a mulch path at Lady Bird Johnson Wildflower Center.

St. Edward's flowers bloom

While attending AccessU, the annual accessibility conference held at St. Edward's University, I took a stroll around campus to admire the flowers in bloom. A white pricklypoppy, Argemone albiflora, frames the university's Main Building.

Monarchs don't always survive long

Some monarchs don't survive the transformation from caterpillar to butterfly. This one was unable to shed the chrysalis from its right fore wing and could not fly.

First monarch butterfly

The first monarch I've seen begins its life as an adult! While watering the garden, I noticed a flash of orange at the base of a broccoli plant.

Monarch chrysalis saved

I found this mostly formed chrysalis on the front door railing. I wasn't sure if it would make it, but I couldn't leave her so exposed. 

Soldier bug attacks monarch caterpillar

What appears to be a Spined Soldier Bug nymph, a type of stink bug, sucks the juices out of a monarch caterpillar. I crushed the predator, but it was already too late for the butterfly larva.

Eastern comma butterfly

While milling around the garden, I noticed this beauty tasting the leftover greenhouse framing. It's an Eastern comma butterfly.

Queen caterpillars

A pair of queen butterfly larvae convert milkweed into body mass. These caterpillars have 3 sets of "antenna," called filaments or tentacles, while monarchs have only two.

Build: butterfly kite, out of my league

I bit off more than I could chew. I tried to make a butterfly kite from these instructions. I have lots of bamboo and it looked simple enough. I used a candle to heat, then bend the bamboo to form the wings.

Everything looked great, until I covered it with tissue paper. It's not symmetrical, but worse, there isn't enough surface area on the sails. This one doesn't fly. I'll try again after I master some easier plans.