Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge – July 2023 (2)

The butterfly garden at Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge had butterflies in July. There were Queen butterflies feeding in a group – the longer one looked, the more butterflies there seemed to be! This butterfly is seen more frequently further south than north Texas (almost into Oklahoma); maybe the extremely hot summer is pushing them further north.

The other butterfly I photographed was a male black swallowtail – a large butterfly that flutters as it collects nectar (as seen in the video below).

There were grasshoppers too! I photographed two after I startled them on the path and saw where they landed on a plant (and managed to zoom in with my camera to photograph them without being close enough to force them to move again).