I'm back from Selby and I'm so excited I'm starting a new thread for the month! I'm only a few hours early.
I had a great time, but the best part was that I SAW A NEW BUTTERFLY!!! Now, I had an idea that I might see this one when I was driving to the garden, but I got distracted by all the plants once I got there and kind of forgot. Plus, I didn't see this one until after lunch so I'd already been there like three hours. So what did I see? A Mangrove Skipper! Now, as you might have guessed from the name, the caterpillars eat Red Mangrove as their host plant. So you only see these guys near the coast. And since Selby sits right on the water and has mangroves, I got to see this guy! There were actually two of them on the pentas and I took so many pictures. I guessed I must have taken 50 but I just checked and I took 55! I won't post them all, I promise.
So I'm starting the month of May with a butterfly new to me, and hopefully things will kick off soon for most of the country and you guys may see a butterfly new to you this year!
So without further ado, the Mangrove Skipper!
Awesome, right? It has blue iridescence, but not as bright as the Pipevine Swallowtail. They're also a much larger skipper than I imagined. And they let me get really close to them!
Now, for the other boring stuff I saw.
There were tons of Monarchs flying around today. It was really windy today and Selby is right on Sarasota Bay so the wind off the water was pretty strong. Felt kind of bad for the butterflies.
I only found one tiny Monarch cat despite all the adults flying around.
This Zebra Longwing was on some kind of wild coffee plant.
Found a nest on a Red Bay tree but it was empty. Spicebush ST cats build nests and fold the leaves over. That's what you look for when you want to find caterpillars. Sometimes you get a caterpillar surprise, sometimes you don't.
I tried stalking this White Peacock but I think they frown on you walking on the plants.
Their pipevine had plenty of Polydamas cats!
And there were a couple of Polydamas flying around including one who stopped to lay eggs. Check it out - does she look like she flew through a pollen storm or what?
Monk Skipper with bee friend on porterweed. The non-native porterweed, I'll point out.
They have Duskywings, too!
This male Spicebush ST was a little beat up but he's still going strong. As you can see, he's on the same red pentas as the Mangrove Skipper. The red pentas were really popular.
Other species I saw but couldn't get pictures of include Giant Swallowtail, Great Southern White, and lots of Orange-Barred Sulphurs.
Also, I know I said I wasn't allowed to buy plants, but you guys knew I was lying, right?
I totally bought two bromeliads. But two isn't that bad! And they were really pretty and I didn't own them yet. So I had to fix that. I'm going to post a whole thread about Selby and I'll let you guys know when it's ready. I took 868 pictures today! Thank goodness I packed that spare camera battery because I totally needed it. I wonder if they make Melanie batteries. I feel like I need to recharge! But I had tons of fun and I feel much better. Happy butterflying, everyone!
