Sap-visiting butterflies

I was surprised when my fellow butterfly enthusiasts and Garden volunteers told me today about butterflies visiting oozing sap on an oak near the Caboose Parking area and showed me some remarkable photos. Wow.

There were Red Admirals, and Commas, and others taking advantage of the fresh sap, perhaps as a consequence of Yellow-Bellied Sapsuckers drilling into the bark.

One of our garden horticulturists had alerted them to this, having just observed the masses of butterflies.

Hopefully, I'll be able to post a few of their photos!

Comments

  1. Lisa,

    We once had a tree sapping here we got about 10 species on it! They will let you get photos if you have just a few at time.

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  2. What a cool thing to see!

    Oh those yellow-bellied sapsuckers and their habitat building ways. I just learned this summer that hummingbirds follow the sapsuckers north and feed on sap before there's a lot of nectar around.

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  3. Red admiral and comma butterflies? Until this moment I had assumed these to be European butterflies and had not expected that they would be seen in America.
    It just goes to prove that you learn something every day!!
    Rob

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