I’ve spoken to a few other gardeners, and even found a news report that confirmed it… Butterfly populations are definitely down this summer.

Normally by this time in the year, I can come out on any summer afternoon and the white butterfly bush has at least four or five butterflies flitting about it. And there are almost always several more to be found elsewhere in the garden. But mostly it’s the big, black-bummed carpenter bees.

And there’s not even as many of them as their usually are.

The only butterfly that hasn’t seem to taken a hit on numbers is the ubiquitous Cabbage white.

There are always a dozen or so flitting about the garden on any given day. I’m pretty sure I helped their numbers by planting broccoli this year… I know I didn’t get all of the caterpillars that were munching away on the plants.

Despite lots of caterpillars, adult monarchs have been fairly scarce.

There was of course, the lovely little girl that came into the world from the catio.

I’ve seen a couple very ragged looks ones (and Lemmy has eaten one or two). These are the monarch that laid the eggs that became the caterpillars that I watched grow this summer. Once a butterfly becomes an adult, it’s only purpose is to mate and lay eggs. Once it does, its days are numbered. And they literally just fly until their wings shred and they can fly no more.

And as sad as it is, their children start their life in my garden, or at least, use my garden as a way point on their way south.

And speaking of tattered… I never get many Tiger Swallowtails in the garden but when I do – they ALWAYS visit the Dark Knight Butterfly bush… and they are always tattered.

And it’s a shame – I think they are one of the most beautiful butterflies we have here, but I never get to see them in their full glory.

The Red Spotted Purple is a butterfly that’s pretty common in this garden. Their numbers are definitely down, but on top of that, they’ve proved extremely hard to get pictures of. I got really excited and thought I had my chance when I spotted one deep inside the white butterfly bush…

But then I realized, not only was that an odd place for it to be… it also didn’t seem to be moving. I reached in, pulled it out gently, and discovered why…

It seems it fell victim to this VERY TINY crab spider. Oh well… I guess a spider has to eat too!

I did manage to get a picture of a live one a few days later…

Though I haven’t seen one since. They are certainly pretty from both sides!

Speaking of…

Red Admirals are another really common butterfly here. I saw more in the spring – they are usually one of the earliest butterflies I see, showing up as soon as we get a warm day in April or early may. But I have trouble getting not just picture of them (they don’t tend to sit still) but pictures of their wings open. I was thrilled when this one on the lavender butterfly bush was so accommodating!

Comma’s are also fairly regular visitors, though this is the only one I’ve seen this year, and it was looking pretty ragged. It’s open wing colours are usually a fairly vibrant rusty orange, but this one was pretty dull. Still.. I love it when I get a picture with their little tongue curled up on the end!

Last year and the year before, I had dozens of skippers throughout the garden, but this year I’ve only seen the wee Peck’s Skipper (right) and Silver Spotted Skipper (Left)

There have been a handful of Northern Crescents, but not one Meadow Fritillary (which looks similar but is larger). These two are normally all over the False Sunflowers this time of year.

And this wee guy is NEVER a common sight. It’s a summer Azure. I’m lucky if I see one once a year. That’s partly because they are tiny!!!! It’s a little smaller than a dime. And if you do catch sight of one, they are hard to keep track of as they fly. I was super thrilled when this one landed on the gourds at the exact right time!

And it seems the garden has one or two more surprises for me. I pulled the last of the ready carrots the other week and hanging out on the ones I seeded late…

A caterpillar of the Black Eastern Swallowtail! Funny thing – I never one saw a Black Eastern in the garden, but there must have been and she laid some eggs in my carrots! (They live off of plants in the carrot and parsley family). Long time readers will remember when I had one make a chrysalis in the garden at the townhouse. It ended badly, but I was hoping I might get a second chance. This guy was a good size, so I put several sticks in around him, hoping he’d chose one to make his chrysalis on when he was ready. Sadly, he did not… I came out a few days later and he was gone. I’ve searched the area for a chrysalis, but no luck,

But we may still get another chance with the monarchs…

There’s once again several fat juicy ones on the catio milkweed, getting ready to head out into the big, bad world. I’ll let you know if I find any more little green jewels.