Spring's Resolve Bluebirds and Tree Swallows

Property disputes between bluebirds and tree swallows, and tree swallows and tree swallows seem to be resolved by now and life is very busy with serious nesting preparations here at Flower Hill Farm. 

Today I took my first butterfly photo of 2014 — caught a whisper of light in a Cabbage White while she rested between sips of daffodil nectar. I invite you to scroll through to see the animated birds and a honeybee too. 

Migratory songbirds are showing up daily to claim their territory. A Ruby-crowned Kinglet is displaying his crown while very near the ground. I fear for the hundreds of sleeping pupa and caterpillars hoping for a season to spread their gowns. But I am happy to see these familiar bird friends return.

Everyday, new Iris reticulata stems are breaking earth and pushing their way through last years detritus spreading petals of blues and purples across the garden floor. 

Meanwhile, I am working at the computer most days into nights and often into nearly dawns trying to finish my new website. Gathering and resizing then grouping years of photos of wildlife and gardens, skies and landscapes all arranged on pages that hold this place in pixels. Flower Hill Farm and all her beasties are being catalogued and soon will be presented on my new site caroldukeflowers.com. 

I will be back here a few more times to invite you to visit. 

Flower Hill Farm Butterflies of 2012 ~ Whites and Sulphurs

The Cabbage White Pieris rapae, Orange Sulphur Colias eurytheme and Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice, are all inhabitants of Flower Hill Farm and are featured in this installment of Flower Hill Farm Butterflies of 2012. 

Cabbage Whites 2012 and 2009

The Cabbage Whites I have photographed are males. A female has two black dots on each wing.

The originally Eurasian and abundant Cabbage White is hardly loved by most farmers and gardeners. I admit to having my own bias against the ghostly Cabbage White due to the larva and my sharing a love of the Brassica family, though I do not ever tolerate or support those that use poisons to control any insects that might damage our food supplies. 

The green caterpillars also eat peppergrass Lepidium virginicum and other mustards, so it is a good idea to plant more mustard greens that one would wish to eat. I do not really mind sharing my veggies with most wildlife and so far the whites are not too much of a problem here. Rabbits, however, make growing my own food so very heartbreaking and difficult. 

Cabbage Whites and Orange Sulphur 2012

Whites and Sulphurs are members of the same family but have their own subfamily each according to their name. The only Whites I have sighted here are the Cabbage Whites . . . it may be that the non native has caused a decline in the native species. The insane practices of corporate farms and others who manage land with toxic pesticides is most likely a larger factor in all endangered butterfly species. 

These butterflies are in flight from spring through fall . . .  having three broods that seem to overlap one another. The Sulphurs are more numerous and confusing to identify as certain later broods seem to look identical. I have included photos from previous years in the collage below. 

Orange and Clouded Sulphurs  2012 and earlier

Orange and Clouded Sulphurs fly about low to the ground in meadows, pastures and fields choosing legumes such as clovers, vetches and alfalfa leaves to fasten a single egg to. I have noted that they choose lupines too. In Massachusetts the Whites and Sulphurs overwinter as fourth instars or chrysalises.

I still have the Fritillary, Skipper and Monarch butterflies of 2012 to share. By next week the gardens should be wide awake with many more returning birds and butterflies awaking with it. It is exciting to imagine all of these beauties and more flitting about the fields and gardens soon. Happy butterflying!


A new installment of my  'A Bestiary' is up over at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens.

Flower Hill Farm BUTTERFLIES OF 2011 ~ Sulphurs and Whites

Orange Sulphur on Aster

We now enter the family Pieridae, of fluttering Whites and Sulphurs, found in the gardens and fields here at Flower Hill Farm over the last few years. 

Orange sulphur Colias eurytheme and Clouded Sulphur Colias philodice, can be confusing to identify, but not to the female Orange sulphur butterflies, who are attracted to the ultraviolet in the male Orange sulphur upper wings. 

I enjoy these bright buttery and paler butterflies mostly in mid to late summer and fall, though their flight may begin as early as May. 

The Orange sulphur and Clouded Sulphur female butterflies will lay a single, yellow-white morphing into deep red, egg on numerous legumes but prefer alfalfa, vetches, and white clovers. It seems the Orange sulphur caterpillars enjoy dining mostly in the dark. One would have to enter the meadows towards evening . . .  to see the caterpillars wearing green and white-striped pjs munching their leafy legume supper. 

Both Orange and Clouded Sulphurs overwinter in their chrysalis forms.

Orange or Clouded on Vetch

Clouded Sulphur on Aster

Clouded Sulphurs flutter though these images of the south field . . . full of New England Asters.

There is always a great chase scene in every good story.

The Cabbage White Pieris rapae, and I share a common delight. We both love Brassicas. Planting peppergrass and mustards may encourage the female to fasten her yellow-green eggs on a more diverse group of delicious plants, so there will be enough to go around. 

Unfortunately the green and yellow-striped caterpillar is blamed . . .  and I guess rightfully so . . . for much agricultural damage. Poisons have not worked but only brought more angst to the human community. 

Cabbage Whites overwinter in their chrysalis stage. 

Introduced to Canada from Eurasia in the eighteen hundreds it may also have caused the decline of other native Whites. 

Spring is still harnessed and held back by winters frosty grip out in our New England gardens and landscapes, but the Smith College Bulb show is on, giving all a whiff and whirl of what is soon to be set free. These photographs from last March are as close as I have been able to get this year . . . so far. 

Bluebirds are giving a 'wing up' to our new birdhouses!! 

Snow is melting and next week will be in the high 50's and even 60's! 

Snowdrops are still perky after the heavy carpet of snow . . .  I thought surely had crushed them. 

Ah, to be so supple!
I have seen a few dead honeybees caught out in the cold after the warmer days last week. The Monarch Butterflies are leaving Mexico!

I am late for my flight to Sweden and Katarina's charming world. I am happy to share my garden jewels today!

From the fragile wings to beasts . . . you can see my latest piece on the Eastern Coyote from my Bestiary over at Native Plants and Wildlife Gardens. But beware . . . it is a chilling tale.

August Bloom Day

The blooms most active in the north corner of my jungle are creating beauty and a feeding station.

Tree Hydrangea, Sedums, Artemisia, Hibiscus Rose of Sharon, Thalictrum Lavender Mist, Hydrangea, Hostas and Globe Thistle have been flowering for weeks.

Wild Honeybees were all over these blooms a few days ago.

Hummers delight in the lily- like Hosta Royal Standard blooms. 

I am often capturing images of hummingbirds sipping from these rich Hibiscus syriacus blooms too.

Looking through Rose of Sharon towards the rotund Hydrangeas, whose name I have forgotten... 

Late blooming Rosa rugosa seen through a Lavender Mist.

They just keep sending out buds.

Even the stems of Lavender Mist take on a purple hue. It can reach up to five or six feet tall. 

Offering a bit of camouflage to little fauns. 

Out in the middle meadow-like garden Joe-Pye Weed (Eupatorium purpureum) blends well with Continus (Smoke bush) and is a favorite of many kinds of bees and butterflies. 

Looking to the left we see another Hydrangea paniculata in the background. Standing by it one day it seemed I heard and saw the entire wild honeybee hive all over the panicles of blooms.

Echinops Globe thistle unfurls countless starry petals from its prickly sepals that this Pearly Crescentspot enjoys dipping it's proboscis into.

Marjoram is favored by the ghostly Cabbage White Butterfly. This photo was actually taken a week or so ago.

Impatiens Roylei blooms almost anywhere in the garden . . . here she brings us back to the north garden before a vaporous White Birch. This is an offering from New England for the Garden Bloggers Bloom Day . . . go to Carol's May Dreams Gardens to see other blooms from around the world.