Many people have been mentioning that the butterfly population seems to be down in Greensboro this year. Imagine our surprise when we were walking near Carlson Farms in northwest Greensboro and we saw this zebra swallowtail butterfly. They are distinctive for their longitudinal stripes and black and white coloring that make them resemble zebras. As you can see, this butterfly was extracting nectar from a butterfly bush (buddleja); however, the zebra swallowtail is really associated with paw-paw trees. Paw-paw trees grow well in Greensboro and have become popular here due to their edible fruit. Perhaps there was a paw-paw tree nearby.

If you love butterflies and are interested in creating an eco-system in your yard that is attractive to butterflies, you may want to consider joining the North American Butterfly Association (NABA), see here. If you want a local resource, you can contact All-A-Flutter Butterfly Farm off of Highway 68 on Clinard Farms Road. At the moment, they are not open for visits due to COVID; however, you can contact them and see if they have release packages available. Another fun thing to do related to butterflies is to go here and track the travels of the monarch butterfly through North Carolina.  Happy Wednesday!