Backyard Biodiversity- Butterflies

Butterflies seem to love the heat and with temperatures flirting with triple digits this weekend, it seems like a good time to be checking the patches of wildflowers and the butterfly garden in my yard to see what shows up. In the last several days, four species have made an appearance -

Great spangled fritillary - Butterfly garden - 6-30-26

Silver spotted skipper - Butterfly garden - 7-1-26

Northern Broken-dash - Butterfly garden - 7-1-26

Cabbage white - Backyard - 6-28-26

Rather than writing detailed descriptions of each of these specimens, I’ll let the images do the talking and add several more that have been observed in our backyard. While I have not seen the following this week, they are annual visitors and can be expected to show up at any time.

Peck’s skipper - Butterfly garden - 7-9-25

American Lady - Butterfly garden - 6-27-25

Spicebush swallowtail - Back deck planters - 7-9-23

Eastern Tiger swallowtail - Butterfly garden - 7-28-22

These are just a sampling of the butterflies that visit our yard each year. I’ve photographed more than a dozen species, but there are more species that visit which have eluded the camera’s eye. Always something new to find with a little time and effort spent in our small plot of land.