The summer of 2023 became the year of the butterflies. I don’t know if it was all the rain or the humidity that went on for months, or big summer rain that created more blooming from spring through fall, but the butterflies seemed to like the change.
We had a field of sweet peas that started in April; late this year due to the cold, wet weather. I didn’t plant them. They were all pods from the previous year. They grew seven feet high and covered over everything including our roses. But the butterflies, birds and bees loved them, and so did I.
The progression of butterflies started slow. First to arrive were pale yellow butterflies. They are a medium sized butterfly. It might have been a sulfur butterfly from the Pieridae family.
The next ones to appear were very small ranging from a pale pink color to almost fuschia with even a touch of blue. These I had never seen before this year. These are actually called a South Pink Moth from the Pyrausta inornatalis family. They were everywhere, and especially loved our purple salvia and all the yellow flowers.
In June and early July, we had blue butterflies. They were about the same size as the yellow sulfur butterfly and I wondered if it was a moth or butterfly. It looks similiar to the common blue moth but it is usually not found in this area of Southern California. It may be an El Segundo Blue butterfly that feeds on the native buckwheat plants that grow everywhere in this area. That butterfly is from the species Euphilates allyni. I could not be 100% sure as I am no expert on butterflies, but because I had not seen a blue butterfly like this or the pink moths before, I had to research to identify them. With the El Segundo Blue, it is usually just found in that community of Los Angeles, but we are not so far away that it wouldn’t be possible for them to expand their area.
After that we had our first monarch butterfly arrived mid-July. There weren’t as many of them this year as there had been in previous years. Now it is October and we are still seeing a few but not many. We did have one chrysalis on our milkweed plant in late July.
Throughout the summer there were the ever present white butterflies, frequently called cabbage moths. They seem to be especially attracted to the sage plants as well as any yellow or white flowers. They are actually in the same family as the sulfur butterfly –the Pieridae family. Another common butterfly in late summer were the little orange ones called grass skippers, which true to their name, you have to be careful not to step on in the yard. They liked all our plants in pots and any flowers close to the ground.
Just yesterday I saw a yellow swallowtail. I am not sure which one but it was bright yellow with a black outline. It flew over my head as I was out clipping some flowers.
We used to have morning cloak butterflies that would land on our Chinese elm tree. Their chrysalis would drape over the branches of the elm and a few also chose the front porch overhand at our entrance. It was strange seeing all the caterpillars transforming into chrysalis right there on our front porch. One even decided to hang under a window sill right next to our front door. I would talk to it every day. Finally, I came home from work one day and saw that the cocoon was empty. All the sudden it flew right up to as if to, “Hello. I’m free now.” I really loved that.
Reflections Outside My Window 