Although the horrible humidity is set to return tomorrow, I’ve been enjoying the past few perfect summer days. And I’m not the only one. In the afternoons, the backyard is filled with butterflies.

It’s not been unusual to see multiple monarchs in the yard at the same time.

They are makin good use of the milkweed.

We’ve already got a good crop of caterpillars, and the monarchs’ regular presence means there are many more to come.

This big beauty, of course, is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I only saw her on the coneflowers….

but I hope she made a stop on the carrots or parsley to lay some eggs.

On the other end of the size spectrum, we have the Banded Hairstreak. It’s very tiny – about the size of a dime. And as you can see, it’s mostly grey/brown.

Except for a little bit of blue and orange on its hindwing.

Also in the small range, we have the Summer Azure.

As you can see, it’s a lovely pale blue butterfly. And so small she’s easy to miss in the garden if you aren’t paying attention.

These Northern Crescents are a little bit bigger and much more noticeable with their bright orange colours.

They are usually pretty common in my garden from now until early fall. And they seem to prefer the yellow flowers.

Though not always!

And here’s another common summer visitor…

The comma! So named for that little white crescent mark on her wing. When closed, her wings are dark brown and have a bit of a tortoiseshell pattern.

But the open side is bright orange.

Now these Red Admirals are normally quite frequent visitors to the garden.

But this year they’ve been noticeably absent. This is only the third time I’ve seen one this year. And as you can see, it’s probably nearing the end with those damaged wings.

But this guy….

This guy is a new visitor! It’s a Common Snout butterfly! And I think you can see how it got its name.

It’s a medium sized butterfly, on par with the Red Admiral, Comma, and White Cabbage.

And last… I actually thought this was a wasp when I took the picture….

It wasn’t until I downloaded it and looked closer that I noticed it was something different. Check out those fuzzy legs!

Sadly, as neat as it is, it’s bad news for my garden! It’s a Squash Vine Borer Moth. It lays eggs that turn into caterpillars that burrow into my squash plants and absolutely decimate it! I’m pretty sure it’s the reason I lost my entire squash crop last year.

So excuse me while I go inspect my plants!!!!