Monarchs galore. Also orange barred sulpurs and giant swallowtails. Oh and some gulf frits. Have not seen the giants flying so much as have been finding lots of eggs.

Gosh, y'all are so lucky in zone 10! I don't see Monarchs until around about August here in 7a!

Here the butterflies were so due to the unexpected hard freezes that came with that arctic blast, but the numbers are starting to pick up. Even some of the more uncommons like the Guava Skipper are showing up. Usually there are tons of Queens by now, but then again, all the Milkweeds are barely coming back. Lots of skippers though and the citrus trees have lots of new leaves, so I'll be checking for eggs. Really hoping this will be another good butterfly year!

Danny

bandjzmom- you don't see monarchs until August? In the frozen tundra of zone 4b (Minnesota) we always get our first monarchs sometime between May 15-25. Does the first batch further south just migrate north and bypass much of the south? Tony

I have seen a Red Admiral, a very small Buckeye, & lots of small sulphurs so far. We don't see the monarchs as much on their trek north as we do see them in late summer when they are migrating south. I have more queens than monarchs here in the spring & summer.
I was able to over-winter a few tropical milkweeds in my garage so I will actually have a few plants for them this spring. I am also planting lots of perennial seeds this year so I can have more of a variety for them here. I wish the tropical was hardy in Zone 7b because it seems to tolerate our hot summers the best! We have a native milkweed but it doesn't really show up until late spring or early summer...then it disappears during the heat of our summers & re-sprouts in early fall.
I am so ready to see more BFs here but the only nectar plants that are blooming yet are the weeds in my neighbor's yard...dandelions everywhere! I'm glad they don't pull them like I do...I just hate them in my yard! ;o)

I haven't seen any monarchs here yet, Danny, but it's a little early. I usually see them pass through in the spring, but they never lay me any eggs - I just get eggs/cats in the late summer/early fall. I can hardly believe this, but not only is the tropical milkweed coming back that came back last spring, but another is, too! Also, one of my pentas is coming back from the roots - no pentas have ever survived our relatively mild winters until now. Two of them aren't showing any signs of life, so I'll probably replace them.
It was a beautiful day today, so I did a lot of work outside. I saw several butterflies, but can only identify two for sure, a cloudless sulphur and a sleepy orange. I saw a medium size butterfly at a distance with some orange in it - it could have been an American lady, but by the way it flew, I think it was a question mark. I saw a large butterfly, also off in the distance, that had to be some type of swallowtail. It had some yellow in it, so it could have been a giant swallowtail, a palamedes swallowtail or a tiger swallowtail. I've seen a few red admirals earlier this year, and I also saw some type of duskywing skipper bobbing along today.
'Looking forward to the new season!
Sherry

Tony.....I live in the corner of NW GA, and I never see them AT ALL until August. I am growing lots of milkweed for them and am actively raising them when they come, so you know that I am on the look out for them! :o) Not sure why that is, but maybe I am just catching the northern ones as they head back to Mexico? My busiest butterfly months here are August-October.~~Angie

Down here the busiest butterfly months are late August to mid December. That's when all the Mexican butterflies stray here and we end up seeing many tropical butterflies.

Today I saw a Giant Swallowtail, another Monarch, and a Guava Skipper in the garden. Lots of tiny Skippers also.