Butterflies and Blossoms

So I am sure that everyone else is becoming as impatient as I am about the slow emergence of Spring. But I just wanted to let you know that it is coming slowly but surely. I was out on the deck the other day admiring the blossoms that are opening on the cherry trees in my yard. The honey bees were very excited about the blossoms also.

All of a sudden I noticed that there was a bright orange butterfly sitting on the blossom just going to town deep down in the middle of it. I guess I have been oblivious most of my life since I had not noticed that they seem to be sucking up the nectar inside the blossom with just as much excitement as a honey bee.

Well, upon doing a nice little Google search, I found out that butterflies do not have a very long lifecycle and that the nectar is what the adult butterfly feeds on. With the slow emergence of Spring, I was surprised to see a butterfly out there eating its fill. I did not think that it was warm enough for them to have gone this far in their lifecycle yet. I guess it would depend on the species and let’s face it, that is a little too much in depth for my basic biologic understanding.  Another fun fact that I read was that a butterfly cannot fly if their body temperature is below 86 degrees.

Butterflies consume a liquid diet, so they consume nectar from flowers and water whereever they can find it. You can actually create butterfly feeders with mushy banana slices, oranges and watermelon. Butterflies are able to see blue, red and green colors so having those colors and possible flower shapes will attract them to the food.

I actually prefer to plant a lot of wildflowers to attract the butterflies, simply because I enjoy flowers and the other plus is that they are usually perennial and can be enjoyed  year after year. I hope this gets you a little more excited to pay closer attention the next time you observe a butterfly out in your yard. They are quite fasinating to watch, if you can sneek close enough without scaring them off. It took me several attempts before capturing this picture.