Giant Swallowtail

This weekend I was supposed to go up north for the Minnesota Dragonfly gathering but unfortunately my car was broken into on Thursday while I was at a local park. Fortunately all my camera equipment was with me but they broke my back passenger window to gain access. The only thing that they took was a laptop bag that was filled with all of my books, surprise! So I decided to head up to Wild River State Park today to do some dragonfly photography. What I photographed most though was giant swallowtail butterfly. The giant swallowtail is a butterfly of the south east, although they are also found in southern California. The larval host plant are eaves of citrus trees so it makes sense that you would find them primarily in the south where they grow citrus. There range does extend to the southern border of Minnesota and on some years they push into the southern part of the state as the summer progresses. This year they have already made it as far north as Wild River, which is further north then I have ever seen them, and its only the second week in June. The strangest part though is that this year it seems to be hard to find species that are usually common. Everything is mixed up. It's like we have a shortage of butterflies except for giant swallowtail which are an uncommon species.

Giant Swallowtail

In this part of the country we typically see 3 different types of swallowtail butterflies. Two of these swallowtail are yellow and look very similar. The more common of these two is the eastern tiger swallowtail and the other yellow is the Canadian tiger swallowtail, the range of both of these two overlaps in Minnesota with the Canadian primarily in the north and eastern in the south. The third type of swallowtail that we typically see is the black swallowtail, which as its name implies is black in color making it easy to distinguish.

In August of 2008 an eruption of a fourth type of swallowtail, the giant swallowtail, occurred in the south eastern part of the state. The giant swallowtail is one of the largest butterflies found in North America. Its typical range is the eastern half of the US up to Iowa and southern Wisconsin in the north and the Rockies in the west, as well as the south western US, Mexico and down into South America. The larval form, or caterpillar, is called an Orange dog because they are usually found feeding on members of the citrus family.

Giant Swallowtail vermilion river

Well we did make it out to Necedah NWR today. The weather was cooperative and despite the ticks and deer flies we had a pretty good time. We did get some more red-headed woodpecker picks but today we seemed to spend a lot of our time photographing butterflies.

There were plenty of butterflies fluttering around Necedah, many more then we saw last year around this time, so I am hopeful that this year will be a better year all around for butterflies then last year was. Last year we did not see many butterflies at the beginning of the summer.
The end of the summer was a different story however. Not only were there a good number of monarchs around gathering to migrate, but we were also fortunate to have an eruption of giant swallowtail in the south eastern quarter of the state. Typically very few of these large butterflies are seen in Minnesota and then usually only in the very south eastern border of the state. Last year though I frequently saw giant swallowtail up around the Twin Cities. I photographed this one on the shore of the Vermilion River near Hastings Minnesota. I also photographed numerous giant swallowtail at Carpenter Nature Center.

First Day of Spring

Today was the official first day of spring for 2009 and in typical Minnesota fashion when I woke up this morning it was snowing. At first the snow was not accumulating, I guess that the ground was still warm from temps that got up into the 50s and 60s most of the week, but as the snow continued it began to build up a bit. Fortunately it did not last too long, as the sun came up the temps rose, the high was around 50 degrees, and the snow turned to light rain. When I got off of work the rain had stopped but it was still overcast so I decided not to go out and shoot. Tomorrow, however is supposed to be sunny with temps in the mid 50s again so I will probably try and get out for much of the day since Sunday and Monday look as though they may be wet.
Here are some pics that should help everyone to get in the mood for spring. These were all taken at the Carpenter Nature Center back in August of last year. I am sure that most of you probably already know what type of butterfly is featured in this first pic.
The giant swallowtail is a rare visitor to Minnesota but last year we had a sort of eruption, similar to the eruptions that we sometimes see with northern birds during the winter, that began in the late summer and covered quite a bit of the south eastern portion of the state.
I was very excited when I was able to photograph this dragonfly at CNC. I could tell that it was a clubtail but it was one that I had never photographed before. I thought that it might be one of the rare types of clubtails that are often found around the St Croix River, like the St Croix snaketail or the sand snaketail.
With a little help from BugGuide.net I was able to identify it as a russet tipped clubtail. The reason I was so unfamiliar with this type of dragon is because the only record of this species in Minnesota that they have at Odonata Central is in Houston County which is in the far south eastern corner of the state. I will be looking for these again in 2009 and if I am able to get some more pics this year I hope to submit my proof and get the species added to the Washington County species list.

Carpenter Butterflies

Well yesterday we received about a half foot or more of snow. It looks like we will be having a white Christmas this year. It also is looking like it might be another long winter. Which means we are looking at four to five months before we get to see green fields, wildflowers, and butterflies. Fortunately pictures don't hibernate, migrate or die during the winter and I have a lot left from this summer to share.
These butterfly pics where taken at the Carpenter Nature Center at the beginning of September (9-1). This first butterfly is a pearl crescent. Pearl crescents are pretty common in the eastern half of the US and can be found in almost any sunny field. Most butterflies do not have a very long lifespan in their adult form, usually only a few weeks, and you can often get an idea of how long they have been around by what shape they are in. This individual looks pretty rough and faded so it has probably been around for a few weeks.
The red admiral, pictured above, can be found through out the world, except places of extreme cold. This red admiral may be filling up with nectar in preparation for migration.
The monarch is probably the most well known butterfly in the world. Like the red admiral above the monarch also migrate south, except they do so in more significant numbers. But not all monarchs migrate. In the northern part of North America the first brood of monarchs become butterflies in early July. This group of monarchs will lay eggs and die with out leaving their northern homes. It is their offspring, that will become butterflies in late August that will migrate to southern California or central Mexico. There they will hibernate in a type of suspended animation. When spring comes they will awaken, mate, lay eggs and die. Their offspring will head north and populate the areas which the monarchs left to migrate south the year before.
This year butterfly enthusiasts and photographers in south eastern Minnesota where lucky because there was a small invasion of giant swallowtail in the early fall. We typically only see one or two stray giant swallowtail that wander over from Iowa or southern Wisconsin, which is the northern portion of their range. This year though there were quite a few of them around in late August and early September.
One of the reasons why we do not usually see these large colorful butterflies is because the host plants for the giant swallowtail caterpillar are members of the citrus family and citrus does not do very well here in Minnesota.