We have not yet seen any monarch butterflies, but we have seen a lot of other pollinators! I ordered a poster for the wall that shows us the Common Butterflies of the Midwest so we are working on seeing as many as we can and improving our butterfly identification. Here’s some of our recent sightings.
Silver spotted skipper
We learned this identification from the butterfly poster. This is a silver spotted skipper that we spotted on the allium.
Spicebush Swallowtail
We spotted one I’m very excited about and have been preparing for – a spicebush swallowtail! We have seen their caterpillars before and last year we saw several butterflies. So, we planted spicebush near the house and are hoping they might find it for a host plant. Here’s a video of the spicebush swallowtail butterfly on our dianthus. Notice that he has some damage on the swallowtail.
Pale Beauty Moth
This one was not on the butterfly poster and I think that is because it is a moth. At least according to Google Lens. It finds some that look very similar to this and identifies them as Campaea perlata. The images look very similar!
Great Spangled Fritillary
As we were loading the dogs into the car we spotted this butterfly on the ramp we use to get our old basset hound loaded up. We did not know the name of this one but have learned it is a great spangled fritillary. It was very pretty and kept trying to go for a ride with us, but it stayed behind in the yard with a little coaxing.
Bees
My bee identification skills are lacking! But we recently saw several bees drinking on the edge of our bird bath which was cool. I believe this to be a honey bee. I was able to get a closeup. We also saw a bee on our allium that stopped long enough for a photo. I believe this one to be a common eastern bumblebee. And then I was taking photos of the blue delphinium and noticed later that there’s a small winged creature here I think is a sweat bee.
