Fall is my favorite time of the year despite the frequent temperature changes in central Texas.
Butterfly species: Common Buckeye
Butterfly species: Tawny Emperor )
There is a profusion of blooms in the wild garden that attracts the butterflies, bees, wasps, and beetles. Most of the butterflies have had their fill and are gone by about 4:30pm so I must shoot when the light is not exactly ideal. So, I grab my canon with its 18-200mm kit lens, a tripod, and climb on my little electric cart and head on down to the lower part of the property where I let things grow just about as mother nature intends.
All of the native plants I dug myself many years ago from a patch of prairie that was doomed to a bulldozer and a huge Ford new car lot. There was not a soul to be found that would buy the property to be maintained in its un-touched glory. The prairie had never been tilled and was virgin land for eons. What a shame that even a university known for its research department in biology and ecology would not put up the money to preserve this beautiful prairie. It would have made a wonderful laboratory for the profs and students. I collected what I could: seeds/plants and some of the grasses- I dug before the bulldozers wrecked havoc. I hoped and prayed that Nature Conservancy would somehow deem the prairie worth saving but even that huge non-profit organization declined to get invloved. I think politics played a huge role. Now the land is home to a huge building, a large expanse of concrete, and Ford motor vehicles.
Butterly species: Queen feasting on the luscious frostweed
A Queen butterfly feeding on frostweed
Some of the wild garden rampant with blooms
Frostweed- a butterfly magnet. Heavy blooms caused some plants to fall to the gound
Close up of Maximillian sunflower
Maximillian sunflower .
Post and photographs: Yvonne
Pets, People and, Life 
hi there. thank you for commenting on my ‘painted butterfly’ drawing. 🙂
the first butterfly is a Common Buckeye (i drew one of those and gave it away a few months ago). the second is an emperor butterfly – i think maybe a tawny emperor. the one you’ve got labeled as a monarch is actually a queen butterfly. 🙂 and the only reason i know any of them is i use several texas butterfly i.d. websites. i happened to notice carla’s comment above. 🙂
here’s one if you’re interested: http://www.thebutterflysite.com/texas-butterflies.shtml
Thank you for taking time to visit my site and to set me straight about the names of the butterflies. I am so embarrassed that I have the others mislabled. I thought for sure they were monarchs. I had looked at some sites this summer but I had no luck finding the right one. The sites that I found wanted me to buy a guide and I just will not buy something that I am not sure about. I called my friend and she told me the two that I had not named were 1. Buckeye 2. Hackberry. I did not send her the other pics for I had no idea that these were not monarchs. I will correct these sometime tonight (I hope) when I have finished my evening animal chores, etc. etc.
Anytime that you see I have something mis-labeled please feel free to jump in and let me know. I know birds- I just never bothered to learn butterflies.
I really admire your bird, barns, gates, and animal photography. All of your drawings are truly excellent. I have looked at your site for a long time and then finally subscribed a few months ago.
Your flowers are beautiful 🙂
Thank you for taking time to look at the site and to comment. I appreciate this very much.
Thank you for taking the time to visit my blog. I just finished enjoying your beautiful photographs. I don’t know the names of the butterflies, either but if you Google Texas Butterflies I would bet that a lot of photos would come up to help you with that. But even without names they are still Beautiful!!!
Thank you for commenting and for the suggestion which I appreciate very much. I will look again in Goggle to see what I can come up with. Maybe I did not look deep enough to find the names.
I will visit your blog sometime today if not this morning. It is almost noon where I live and I am still looking at blogs to like and to add a comment. We as bloggers, need to support each other and once again- thank you. I hope you will visit my blog often.
I like your blog (and butterflies). Great photos throughout.
Thank you again for visiting my “little ole” blog. I looked at several of your entries and I like your blog. It is different and interesting.