Swallowtail Butterflies at Memorial Park. #Wordless Wednesday

Posted on August 17, 2022 by Linda Schaub

Wordless Wednesday – allow your photo(s) to tell the story.

About Linda Schaub

This is my first blog and I enjoy writing each and every post immensely. I started a walking regimen in 2011 and decided to create a blog as a means of memorializing the people, places and things I see on my daily walks. I have always enjoyed people watching, and so my blog is peppered with folks I meet, or reflections of characters I have known through the years. Often something piques my interest, or evokes a pleasant memory from my memory bank, so this becomes a “slice o’ life” blog post that day. I respect and appreciate nature and my interaction with Mother Nature’s gifts is also a common theme. Sometimes the most-ordinary items become fodder for points to ponder over and touch upon. My career has been in the legal field and I have been a legal secretary for four decades, primarily working in downtown Detroit, and now working from my home. I graduated from Wayne State University with a degree in print journalism in 1978, though I’ve never worked in that field. I like to think this blog is the writer in me finally emerging!! Walking and writing have met and shaken hands and the creative juices are flowing once again in Walkin’, Writin’, Wit & Whimsy – hope you think so too. - Linda Schaub
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71 Responses to Swallowtail Butterflies at Memorial Park. #Wordless Wednesday

  1. LaShelle says:
    August 17, 2022 at 6:39 am

    How beautiful! We have a lot of those kinds around by me too. I love them!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  2. Barbara Rodgers says:
    August 17, 2022 at 6:50 am

    Dazzling captures, Linda! I love how we can clearly see the dots decorating its abdomen! We have one visiting our petunias this summer.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  3. Anne says:
    August 17, 2022 at 8:16 am

    Marvellous photographs!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  4. bekitschig says:
    August 17, 2022 at 8:19 am

    Kudos for the patience Linda! I took a photo of a sunflower yesterday, don’t think the bumblebee waited for me 😉

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 17, 2022 at 9:08 pm

      Thank you Jeanine! I was at a garden which had a lot of sunflowers a few weeks ago. I was trying to capture the bees and also a goldfinch which was playing hide-and-go-seek. I hope it came out; I’ve not looked at the photos yet.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  6. Timelesslady says:
    August 17, 2022 at 10:29 am

    Beautiful. I’ve been saving Black Swallowtail caterpillars and raising them on my back porch for several years. If I leave them outdoors on the fennel, the birds devour them. It is so rewarding to open the screen door and let a new butterfly out into the world.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 17, 2022 at 8:31 pm

      Timelesslady – First, thank you for following my blog. They sure are beautiful and delicate creatures. This is a volunteer garden at a park near me – they love that orange Lantana. That is interesting that you did this to save those Black Swallowtail caterpillars. I commend you for doing that. There is a woman in the next city over from me that does this with Monarchs now and for many years in the past. Karen has an entire backyard filled with Milkweed plants and when she sees the caterpillars on the milkweed, she brings them in the house and into an aquarium. She has multiple aquariums and keeps adding more Milkweed to the aquariums the bigger they get and like you eventually releases them. When Karen and her husband go camping, they take the aquarium(s) with them so she can release them when they are ready. You both are helping the butterfly population!

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
      • Timelesslady says:
        August 18, 2022 at 11:53 am

        I have raised three Monarchs this year. Unfortunately, even with natural milkweed there doesn’t seem to be many Monarchs this year.

        Like

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 18, 2022 at 9:02 pm

        I am glad they finally put them on the endangered list, but unfortunately too late. I saw one over Memorial Day at Lake Erie Metropark and that surprised me as it was a very gray and chilly morning. At least you are making a valiant effort to the Monarchs.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Timelesslady says:
        August 22, 2022 at 9:24 am

        Happy News! Yesterday found five very tiny monarch caterpillars. I brought them into a Wardian Case to bring to maturity. The leaves are also covered with ants. I’ve recently read ants will feed on both the eggs and caterpillars of monarch butterflies. Bringing them in and feeding them fresh leaves gives the a better chance.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 22, 2022 at 9:25 pm

        That is good and happy news Timelesslady! My neighbor and I each bought a Monarch caterpillar “set-up” to raise the caterpillars, then release each of the butterflies. This was in 2010 or 2011. We both had high hopes for doing this and the milkweed plant came with caterpillars, maybe 8-10 I think, with a mosquito netting around the plant and secured with a string around the planter. You had to water the plant through the netting, but, within a week, the caterpillars had eaten all the milkweed and we needed to get more and also move the netting and be careful not to lose any caterpillars. We contacted the people who sold us the Monarch set-up which we bought at the Wyandotte Street Fair. They told us where to go to get milkweed on the side of the freeway. Our caterpillars ate that – my neighbor made a few more trips to gather milkweed then other people were gathering it as there was none left. Then I remembered reading about Karen Hofmann in the local paper and contacted her. My neighbor’s caterpillars had starved and didn’t make it, but I gave the rest of mine to Karen and she raised them and released them. That was before they were placed on the extinct list, but I’m glad we saved them. I found the article but the local paper just recently went to a paywall so I can’t send it to you, even though the article was from 2010. You may be able to view it as you’ve not tried to access the site. I will send it in a separate comment.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Timelesslady says:
        August 23, 2022 at 4:46 pm

        Thanks for this great information. I have a lot of milkweed. I planted it a few years ago, and finally, this year, it sent runners through the garden bed and I have quite a bit. I’m going to try and create a few more posts in the coming week about what I’ve been doing. So far, I have only lost one that I brought in, and it was totally my mistake, I put it in with larger caterpillars and I am pretty sure it was eaten.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 23, 2022 at 8:21 pm

        Sorry to hear you lost one, especially in this time of declining Monarchs. We have a few Milkweed plants at the Park where I walk every day and I have seen a woman with a wicker basket come to harvest it in the past, but not this year.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 22, 2022 at 9:26 pm

        See if you can access this story – I am barred as I’ve tried to access too many free articles. I am going to break down and just pay for the newspaper – I’ve been reading the articles online for years, but this pesky paywall was instituted July 1st. This is the story about Karen Hofmann:

        https://www.thenewsherald.com/2010/07/05/allen-park-woman-gathers-eggs-releases-fully-grown-monarch-butterflies-with-video/

        Liked by 1 person

      • Timelesslady says:
        August 23, 2022 at 4:43 pm

        Yes, thank you I can. I will enjoy reading it.

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 23, 2022 at 8:09 pm

        That’s great Timelesslady – I thought you would be okay since it is the first time for you accessing an article. I was happy to see the article was in their archives. As I mentioned in the earlier comment, Karen raised my remaining caterpillars and even “reported” to me when she released them. She is a wonderful photographer of butterflies as well. I likely will end up subscribing to the newspaper as I like to keep current with the local news – what was previously free is now $2.00 a week.

        Liked by 1 person

  7. Pam Lazos says:
    August 17, 2022 at 10:53 am

    Gorgeous creatures!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  9. peggy says:
    August 17, 2022 at 12:48 pm

    Can’t get enough butterfly pictures. I take pictures of the Swallowtail butterflies all the time.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  10. Ally Bean says:
    August 17, 2022 at 3:24 pm

    I like your photos, but recently found out that some people consider swallowtail butterflies to be pests. I am NOT one of those people. Have you ever heard that?

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 17, 2022 at 9:31 pm

      Hi Ally – glad you liked the photos. No, I had never heard that info about these butterflies being pests, so I was curious and Googled around a little and it is the the caterpillars only because they chew the leaves and decimate the plant. I never heard that info before you told me. Thank you for sharing that info with me.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  11. Joni says:
    August 17, 2022 at 9:03 pm

    Seeing all those butterflies feasting on the orange flowers reminds me….it will soon be fall!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 17, 2022 at 9:34 pm

      It’s a Fall color for sure isn’t it Joni. These are Lantana and considered butterfly magnets. I went back last week one day after walking and they were all dried up from that extreme heat. Too bad, so will have to wait until next year for more butterfly pics.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  13. Hugh W. Roberts says:
    August 18, 2022 at 5:03 am

    These are lovely photos full of great colour, Linda. I’m pleased to say that I’ve seen many more butterflies this summer than I have in the last few years. I was somewhat worried that they were dying out, but they seem to have made a good comeback this year.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 18, 2022 at 7:14 am

      Thank you Hugh. I usually see Monarchs at this garden, which is tended to by volunteers in a park near my home. The orange Lantana is a butterfly magnet, but I saw no Monarch butterflies there at all this year.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  15. Prior... says:
    August 19, 2022 at 7:38 pm

    The butterfly is wonderful but the orange theme in the post was also extra enriching today!
    🧡

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
  16. singlikewildflowers says:
    August 20, 2022 at 2:32 pm

    Great photos… the details on these Swallowtail butterflies are lovely. This will be a good study for us during homeschooling lessons.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 20, 2022 at 4:17 pm

      Thank you Esther – they are beautiful butterflies. I used to have a book on moths and butterflies – there are some beautiful moths out there too. Show the kids where the Monarchs go in Mexico and they hang in groups on trees and are dormant there until it finally warms up, then they all lift off at once. It is beautiful to see – I’ve seen the video, but not in person.

      Like

      Reply
      • singlikewildflowers says:
        August 20, 2022 at 6:51 pm

        Yes, some moths are beautiful. Good study. Can you tell I’m hearing up for school??

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 21, 2022 at 7:12 pm

        There are some very cool moths Esther. I saw a picture the other day of a moth … can’t remember where and it was the largest moth in the U.S. and so colorful. I follow “Birds and Blooms” on Facebook as they show a lot of birds and flowers. I just looked but it was not in recent posts. If you are on Facebook, you can learn a lot about birds and flowers at that site. I used to have a subscription to the magazine but not since my butterfly/perennial garden bit the dust after the first bad Polar Vortex event in the Winter of 2013-2014. I never replanted and my yard looks sad now. Every time I go in the backyard I wrestle with myself – just have grass or make mulched paths and perennial gardens (grass is horrible back there) or put grass. The bushes are overgrown. But I don’t know if I want to be a slave to the garden like I once was, even when retired. Climate change has a lot to do with it too … gardeners worry the frost comes too soon, or too hot, too much rain … I don’t know if I want that angst anymore. Yvette Prior and I were going to plant sunflowers to see how we did. Second year I said “maybe next year” – she said the same thing as me. I went to a big flower garden and got pics of their sunflowers, just sorted thru those pictures this afternoon. I was lucky and got a few goldfinch shots of them in the sunflowers.

        Liked by 1 person

      • singlikewildflowers says:
        August 22, 2022 at 2:19 am

        I’ll check out that Facebook site soon. I resist going on FB because I get sidetracked by all the pictures and sites that keep coming up. After all that scrolling I wonder why I spent so much time doing that.
        As for birds, I’m learning a lot about them from our blogger friend Andy Finnegan.
        I’m also torn about gardening and wonder if I should invest my time and energy into it. Aloe is my main one these days that grow really well. My sole sunflower wilted as it was about to bloom.
        One major change I added was perlite to my soil; I planted basil and wildflower seeds. It’s made quite a change in the soil structure because I would barely get any growth in the past, however, new seeds sprouted within days. It might be the perlite.
        Whatever you decide to do about gardening, I wouldn’t stress out about it. It’s a lot of work to tend to it. I put some fake white blooms in my container planter and it’s very pretty. Some people think it’s real although it only has big flowers and no leaves…sounds good to me!

        Liked by 1 person

      • Linda Schaub says:
        August 22, 2022 at 8:25 pm

        I remember adding Perlite back in the day when I had a nice garden – I think it is supposed to be good for holding the moisture in the soil? I also used to use a potting soil that did not need as much water as a regular potting soil. It was a moisture control soil. I did not even put out the silk flowers this year. I planted silk flowers the first year after I began my walking regimen. I just threw those flowers away in the Fall of 2020 as they got faded. But I did put alot of effort into putting them into pots and small wheelbarrows and planters so they would look realistic and did not blow away. I saved mesh bags from oranges and bought rocks to put into the bags to weigh them down, then I took pipe cleaners and wove it through the mesh bag and around the bottom of the artificial flowers, so no matter how windy, they were not going anywhere. I liked it – no watering, deadheading, no weeding and before I put it in the garage for the Winter I put it under the patio where it the planter/pot, etc. could dry out a bit. I am not sure I’d ever go back to real flowers again for the front and side yards as these look good all the time. I did buy a couple of silk hanging baskets and a basket of silk flowers last year. I didn’t put them out this year … we had a lot of rain when I normally put them out in late May, then it got so hot. I even put out the hummingbird feeders, then took them in again as there were so many wasps, bees and ants getting into the nectar and no hummingbirds were drinking it. I have to put a lot of thought into making the butterfly garden again – it was a lot of work most of my efforts were about 15 years ago. Something for younger legs and a younger me.

        Facebook will hog up a lot of time if you let it – I only follow a couple of friends, but I turn off their posts and just check their Facebook wall when I have time. I follow the news and nature sites on Facebook and some on Twitter and that’s it. Right now I am behind three days in Reader and because I posted today, I likely won’t get over there tonight.

        Like

  17. Dave says:
    August 21, 2022 at 8:01 am

    Is there a season for butterflies, Linda? I’ve seen one or two around here in South Carolina and wondered if I can expect a lot more in the coming weeks.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 21, 2022 at 7:26 pm

      I know our Monarch butterflies usually leave around Labor Day and head for Mexico. I used to follow the butterfly migration schedule more closely when I had a butterfly garden, but after I lost all my perennials and butterfly bushes in the Polar Vortex in the Winter of 2013-2014, I never replaced those flowers. I didn’t want the extra work, plus the weather is too erratic anymore – people in our region worry about late Spring frosts/late Summer frosts anymore – too much rain, too dry. I know the Monarchs go through South Carolina – you should look for them in early September. They travel in groups and they travel many miles a day. You have a lot of butterflies in SC since you are a more temperate climate. I just took a look and found a site to tell you your most popular butterflies. We get the Red Admirals and Painted Ladies here too- I’ll send it in a separate comment in case it goes to SPAM since it’s a link.

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      Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 21, 2022 at 7:27 pm

      Here’s this site Dave … you’ll be enjoying more birds and butterflies now with the added warm months.
      https://birdwatchinghq.com/butterflies-in-south-carolina/

      Like

      Reply
  18. Janis @ RetirementallyChallenged.com says:
    August 22, 2022 at 6:48 pm

    We’ve had quite a few different butterflies flitting around here lately. They are such a joy to see in the garden!

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 22, 2022 at 9:49 pm

      They sure are Janis. I got one more butterfly to share for Wordless Wednesday but I’ll wait a little bit. It was a beautiful Monarch I saw at a huge garden I discovered earlier this year. One Monarch in this huge place is not good and they just put them on the protected list as they are considered extinct.

      Liked by 1 person

      Reply
  19. Amorina Rose says:
    August 23, 2022 at 7:19 am

    Great images. So beautiful the way nature colours in.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 23, 2022 at 7:57 pm

      Thank you Barbara – I really like this Lantana plant that is over at the volunteer garden at a nearby park. Last year, there were Monarchs on the plant, so that was really gorgeous with the vibrant orange.

      Like

      Reply
  20. indianeskitchen says:
    August 23, 2022 at 10:36 pm

    They are so pretty Linda. I miss all the Monarch Butterflies, I can’t believe they are on the endangered list now.

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply
    • Linda Schaub says:
      August 24, 2022 at 8:46 pm

      I hope they can bring them back Diane … now that their plight has been publicized, maybe by encouraging people to plant milkweed and helping to keep the caterpillars in a safe spot until they can safely emerge as a Monarch will help. I missed seeing the Monarchs at the volunteer garden this year – just the beautiful Swallowtails.

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      Reply
  21. M.B. Henry says:
    August 24, 2022 at 5:13 pm

    Beautiful!!! I love butterfly pictures, they’re one of my favorite things to photograph

    Liked by 1 person

    Reply

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