Category Archives: Pollinators

Monthly Journal – September, 2016

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We photographed several butterflies this past month and had fun trying to identify them all.  It’s difficult for us to tell the difference between the Cloudless and the Clouded Sulphur butterflies, so we just labeled them Sulphur.  The same is true with the Skipper; there are many of them and while we think this is a Southern Skipper, we’re just not entirely sure.  We were also very excited to see the first Monarch of the season!  Hopefully there will be more.

Common Buckeye
American Chestnuts getting a head start at the Atlanta History Center
Banded Tussock Moth Caterpillar
Canadian Geese on the South Fork
Great Blue Heron in the Kudzu on the South Fork
Gulf Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary
House Finches
Mallards on the South Fork
Monarch
Painted Lady
Red-spotted Purple on apple tree (host plant)
Red-tailed Hawk
Sulphur
Sulphur
Juvenile male Ruby-throated Hummingbird
Blue-winged Wasp
Pileated Woodpecker at the Atlanta History Center
Magnificent White Oak in Peachtree Park – 16′-9″ circumference

Can You Spot the Monarch in the Crowd?

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News Flash!  Monarch butterflies have started their amazing migration south and they should be coming through Georgia about now. Monarchs have gotten lot of press recently and people everywhere are pitching in to help them out.

Every time we see an orange butterfly, we think (hope actually) that it’s a Monarch.  But we’re often fooled by at least three other orange butterflies that resemble the Monarch: the Viceroy, Gulf Fritillary and Queen.

To help us keep them straight, we put together this  graphic:

compare-orange-4As you can see, the Viceroy looks the most like a Monarch.  The horizontal black stripe near the bottom of the wing (circled in yellow) is the biggest clue that you are looking at a Viceroy, not a Monarch.  This mimicry is by design to enable the Viceroy to fool predators into thinking it is a Monarch which is toxic.

This graphic also appears on our page Orange Butterflies so you can bookmark it for future reference.  Keep your eyes peeled for all of these beautiful butterflies.