not in my garden, but Monarch photographed at Carnarvon Gorge, Qld.

Painted Lady on Pentas

Common Crow

That Common Crow sure is beautiful!!!

It's fun to see butterflies from Australia!

It's great!

it's another Blue-Banded (solitary) Bee; don't see them often but a treat when I do...






on this

As I know it; the local honey-bee for want of the correct name. Enjoying the Pentas yesterday morning.

I'm so far behind on all of the threads that I normally follow, including this one -- thanks for sharing your beautiful photos, Carole!

Again, I really enjoyed the pictures and appreciate the education that always accompanies them. Thank you guys,

One of your stalkers!

Laurie b

Was surprised today to see this today. Didn't know they overwintered here. It was 10 degrees above normal today. 70F/21C

@HamiltonSquare Good shot of the butterfly. Much warmer where you are.

It was around 40° yesterday and the honeybees were congregating in the compost bin, apparently attracted by the sugar in the orange and tangerine peels. That's twice this week.

Here's some info on the Mourning Cloak - http://entnemdept.ufl.edu/crea...

I love the Mourning Cloak, they are amazing butterflies.

They're baaaack!!!!

Sunshine and 78 degrees is great inspiration to blow the dust off of the camera. The fact that the bees and butterflies were out too was an added bonus. Winter Honeysuckle (Lonicera fragrantissima) is one of the non-natives I heartily endorse. It's the first thing to bloom and is a fabulous nectar source. The pipevine swallowtails were certainly enjoying it today!







The bees were very active too.



And a Variegated Fritillary showed up.



I spotted a Red Admiral, but it was camera shy so I wasn't able to get a photo. Now that spring is on the way, there will be plenty of opportunities.

Very nice Gramma, it is not that warm here yet.

16° here!

Hershey Gardens has a conservatory devoted to butterflies. It is very hot and humid! I went there on February 3, mostly to see the Susquehanna Orchid Show and Sale in another part of the conservatory, but there was plenty of action in the butterfly house:






Curiously (to me anyway) a lot of the butterflies rested on the windowills facing the sunniest direction instead of on the plants (no photos).

This is the first Malachite (Siproeta stelenes) i have seen in the garden for a few years, so i was anxious to get a photo. He is nectaring from the Mexico Flame Vine (Pseudogynoxys chenopodioides). The photo is not so good, i suppose because it was taken in haste and also with lots of zoom from some distance. Still i wanted to celebrate him and hopefully the return of these lovely butterflies to the garden. The colors are true, but somehow the photo came out with an old Kodak shine to it.

That is gorgeous Beverly!!