Nancy Lawson is the author of The Humane Gardener: Nurturing a Backyard Habitat for Wildlife. A columnist for All Animals magazine, she founded Humane Gardener, an outreach initiative dedicated to animal-friendly landscaping methods. Her book and garden have been featured in The New York Times, The Washington Post, O: The Oprah Magazine, and other media outlets.
Where have all the butterflies gone? That’s the question of the summer. Every year we lose more around the planet to habitat destruction, but this season’s local population declines are steep.
Scientists have blamed it on a cold spring that likely zapped butterfly babies. But even as the climate goes hot and cold on these fragile species, there are forces within our control that can contribute to long-term survival. As a butterfly expert told the Washington Post this weekend, “Unlike many things, it’s actually easy for someone to increase the world’s population of butterflies.”
On Sunday, the cross-species party in our patch of native Joe Pye weed, a magnet for many winged creatures and caterpillars, provided living proof of that.
This great spangled fritillary, whose caterpillars feast on our native violets,  showed up first to the festivities.Then along came some real adorableness in the form of this pearl crescent, a pint-sized butterfly whose babies eat native asters.He followed his new friend from flower to flower …… until Mr. Spangled took Mr. Crescent under his wing, a relationship they both seemed to enjoy for a while.Eventually the little guy was not satisfied to be in the shadows anymore, and he flew above his buddy to perch atop his wing.Meanwhile, our visiting monarch tooled around in solitude, but she was no wallflower. She had a cocktail hour of her own in the nearby New York ironweed.And you know how I know she’s a “she”? She has thick vein pigmentation and no “swollen pouches” on the hindwings. (Thanks for the sexy talk, Monarch Watch!) She also had a broken wing but seemed to be making her way around the dance floor just fine.This female Eastern tiger swallowtail on native phlox was a bit torn up, too, but still going strong, as old ladies often do.Random cuteness alert! This has nothing to do with butterflies, but I don’t care because I finally traded my iPhone for a real camera yesterday and captured a clear photo of one of our skittish little bunny rabbits for the first time. She wasn’t invited to the party but went down the rabbit hole in front of our fence after munching on random weeds sprouting from the asphalt. Unlike the butterflies, she is not a finicky diner.
