Butterfly Gardens for Wildlife Wednesday November 2019

It's Wildlife Wednesday and I'm bending the rules just a bit to go outside my own garden and bring you along on my garden club visit to The Butterfly Learning Center at Hardberger Park in north San Antonio.  Wildlife Wednesday is hosted by Tina at "My Gardener Says..."

Designed by Drake White of The Nectar Bar for San Antonio's Hardberger Park it's designed to highlight "mostly" native plants that support butterflies.  Drake shared her extensive knowledge of how to support butterflies in our gardens.  One of the most important things I learned was that a caterpillar inching along on the ground knows where it is going and it's best not help them out.

It's a teaching garden designed for hosting butterflies.  Red flags indicate dormant plants and remind volunteers not to dig in those spots.

So where's the wildlife?  Drake holds up a Monarch caterpillar.  Monarchs generally make their fall migration without breeding but a few do stop and breed in our area.   Love her shirt!

Close up.

Butterflies need both nectar and host plants.  Plants in the garden are labeled with names of the plants and butterflies they host or provide nectar for.  I need this false mint in my garden!  Pretty purple blooms in the fall and nice, upright foliage.

A butterfly shaped garden but where are the plants?



No plants because it's a puddle garden.  "Puddling" is just what it sounds like and provides butterflies with moisture and minerals they need.

Drake checks seeds on a Swallowtail pipevine.  It's a difficult plant to spot because it disguises itself as grass.  I couldn't even find a definitive botanical name on this one though it grows naturally in Central Texas and I have seen it in my yard from time to time.  She has placed a net bag over the flower to collect seeds.  The seeds take two years to germinate.

We were mesmerized by the massive Passiflora vine taking over the fences.  It's Passiflora incarnata x cincinnata which is not native to San Antonio though it grows beautifully here.  Good to know because when the caterpillars are out they can decimate a pretty good supply of vines.

A beautiful host for several butterflies.



The Butterfly Learning Center is open by appointment only.  Contact The Nectar Bar for more information.

There are two additional butterfly gardens at Hardberger Park you can visit any time the park is open.  One is in front of the main park building off Blanco Road and the other is near the Urban Ecology Center which is where we are headed next.

Beautifully designed and maintained by Alamo Area Master Naturalists.



Maximilian Sunflowers are good for butterflies, bees, and birds.  The fence keeps out deer but not people since the gate is unlocked when the park is open.

I was captivated by all the Texas Broomweed (Amphiachyris amoena) in the garden.  It's so light and airy and covered with tiny yellow blooms.  I found a place to collect seeds in a field near my house.  Most of the information out there focuses on how farmers and ranchers can get rid of it so I might think twice before planting.  It provides good winter cover for birds among other benefits.

While there were plenty of bees and butterflies in the gardens we visited I found it a challenge to photograph them with a group.  That means we've only had one wildlife photo of a caterpillar so far. To finish up I'll borrow a Monarch butterfly photo from a visit to my friend Melody's garden the next day.

There, that's so much better than posting one photo of an anole on a screen which is all I found in my October photos.  Maybe I'll save that beauty for another time.

Be sure to check out Tina's blog for more Wildlife Wednesday

Wildlife Wednesday April 2019

It's Wildlife Wednesday and time to share my wildlife sightings from the last month or so.  Wildlife Wednesday is hosted by Tina at "My gardener says...." as a meme to share wildlife sightings from the garden on the first Wednesday of each month.

A bright red male Northern Cardinal is a welcome sight any time of year but spring is especially fun to see them.  They are with us most of the year though they are brighter red in winter.  Very affectionate birds, the male often feeds his mate and I enjoy their cheerful and varied mating songs.

A female Black Swallowtail nectaring on Prairie Verbena.  Female identified by the bright blue dots on her hind wings.

Monarchs stopped by on their way north.  We haven't had much sun in March but they took full advantage of what little we had to offer.

Mexican Buckeye flowers.

Resting on a Pomegranate branch.

Several baby Monarch caterpillars munched on the Tropical Milkweed.  Tropical Milkweed has been the subject of controversy but so far it's the most reliable host plant in my garden so I keep it going or add new ones each year.  The caterpillars were quite tiny, not much bigger than the diameter of a phone charger cable.  Their appetites were good though as they had already eaten quite a lot of the leaves.



I purchased this pretty sign from Texas Butterfly Ranch after registering my garden in the 300for300 list of San Antonio Pollinator Habitats.  Monika Maeckle drew on her experience in public relations and marketing to design an attractive sign to let your neighbors know why your landscape looks a bit different than a typical lawn.  That's not a problem in my neighborhood but I still enjoy displaying it in my circle garden.  If you live in the San Antonio area consider including your butterfly garden on the list.

Those are ants in the bottom right corner!

A beautiful Crested Caracara doing a pretty good Hawk imitation.  When it circled back around I saw the white markings on its head.  Caracara most often hunt by walking around or waiting on a branch so this was a treat to see it soaring high in the blue sky.

Blue skies this time of year are nice, but now we need rain again.  We are honored these magnificent birds also known as Mexican Eagles choose to spend time in our neighborhood each year.

The Whitetail deer herd has plenty to eat outside the fence this year.  We have started leaving fresh water out for the deer and other wildlife since there was no rain in March.  New fawns will arrive soon and the herd will grow.  While they do have outlets to migrate and spread out quite a bit along a system of interconnected creeks and parks which run throughout much of north San Antonio there is still quite a bit of pressure on available plants in a neighborhood like ours.

That's the round up of wildlife from my garden over the last month or so.  To share wildlife from your garden or see what other bloggers have shared be sure to check out the comments section in Tina's blog.

Wildlife Wednesday May 2018

It's the first Wednesday of May and that means Wildlife Wednesday hosted by Tina at "My Gardener Says...." as an opportunity to share wildlife in our gardens.

Male Green Anole (Anole carolinensis) puffing his dewlap which is meant to impress a mate or express dominance in the case of feeling threatened.  Both males and females have the dewlap and the female has a brown stripe down the back.

Mockingbirds have been serenading the garden daily from high in the trees.

Inspired by Sue at My Wild Australia last month here's a bit of its awesome mimicry in an audio file:



Alternately you can go to this link:

Mockingbird song - Click to open

That is the same bird throughout the audio.  Worth a whole minute to experience the full range of sounds once those vocal pipes get warmed up.  Mockingbirds are so amusing and have been known to imitate car alarms, phones, and other noises from suburban life.  They also love an audience and I've seen them repeatedly checking to make sure I'm still listening while out gardening.

Wolf Spider with egg sac crawling around a wheelbarrow.

A green-legged spider created a very large web.  I didn't get a close enough look to positively identify but it is probably not a green lynx spider which typically creates a linear or trip wire style web.

Red Paper Wasp carefully getting water.

A beneficial garden visitor if they don't bother these Monarch Butterfly caterpillars enjoying tropical milkweed.

This crew polished off the milkweeds in no time and I spotted a few Monarch Butterflies floating about the garden a few weeks later so it all worked out well.  The plants are recovering in time for another round.

Pipevine Swallowtail Caterpillar spotted yesterday probably looking for a place to attach and pupate.

Live Oak trees are beautiful but the fallen leaves are messy and impossible to remove.

I like to think all this leaf litter brings me such garden scenes as a happy Giant Swallowtail enjoying Prairie Verbena.

Be sure to visit Tina at "My Gardener Says...." to read her owl's tale and warning about how using poisons outdoors negatively affects wildlife.  Then check out the comments for more Wildlife Wednesday posts from garden bloggers.