Under the blazing midday sun a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) uses its long proboscis to sip nectar from a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea).
_______________________________________________________________________
If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
This afternoon a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele) caught my attention as it alighted on a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurpea). Looking well-worn, as if it had spent its few weeks taking great chances, perhaps escaping a predator or two.
I appreciate Great Spangled Fritillaries in part because their host plants are various species of native Violets. Violets, special plants, and with no Violets, there would be no Fritillaries.
The time that this Fritillary is able to fly as a butterfly is 2 to 10 weeks. Their native range is nearly the entirety of Canada and the United States north of Georgia.
A lovely splash of orange up here in the woods.
_______________________________________________________________________
If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
Flip the pages of the calendar ahead to June and this is what you’ll find in some of my gardens. Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) is a wonderful flower to attract pollinators, and what better example to find than a Monarch Butterfly (Danaus plexippus).
_________________________________________________________
If you would like to receive my daily blog posts by email, sign up here!
The weather forecast for tomorrow night (Wednesday night) into Thursday is exciting for me. Prospects of beautiful ice.
I had a dentist appointment scheduled for Thursday, but given the risk of driving up here where it’s bound to be even more icy than down in the lowlands, I’ve rescheduled that appointment. And besides I’ll need all that time for roaming with my camera.
The only thing better than ice is pristine snow. The perfect decoration for the black and white landscape of winter.
Nature at its most beautiful. Me and my camera thoroughly enjoy capturing it in pixels.
A Sunflower (Helianthus) with a Purple Coneflower (Echinacea purpurea) in the background. Brilliant yellow, perfect pink and rusty orange. Oh those colors!
Echinacea purpurea, or the common name, Purple Coneflower, is blooming right now. An herbaceous, perennial that is native to eastern North America. Though common in gardens, this species is fairly uncommon in the wild.
Pollinators of Echinacea are bees, butterflies and skippers. In the autumn, leave the seedheads and you’ll be rewarded by Goldfinches coming by to eat the seeds.
The butterfly enjoying the Echinacea in this picture is a Great Spangled Fritillary.
