Sara's orangetip Photo by Kelly McAllister

April showers bring May butterflies

April showers DO bring May flowers, but in the Backyard Wildlife Sanctuary world, that translates to butterflies.

Most of these winged beauties tend to be more active on sunny summer days, but spring rains are what really support them – in more ways than one.

Blooming flowers that produce nectar are the obvious food for butterflies. But now, in the spring, is when butterfly larvae – the caterpillars that hatch from eggs and eventually become butterflies – need food from even earlier plants.

Many native backyard trees that are budding up and out now with spring rains are good food sources for butterfly larvae. Pine, maple, alder, hawthorn, cherry, oak, and willow trees are among the best.

Ceanothus or buckbrush, rhododendron, serviceberry, chokecherry, and bitterbrush are native shrubs most used by butterfly larvae. Native perennial best bets include butterfly weed, bleeding heart, lupine, and pearly everlasting.

Some common Washington butterflies emerge from their larval forms as early as April and definitely by May, including orange sulphur, Sara orangetip, brown elfin, spring azure, silvery blue, mourning cloak, mylitta crescent, satyr comma, and common ringlet.

These spring butterflies need the earliest blooming nectar-producing plants, like ceanothus, crabapple, cherry, willow, mock-orange, chokecherry, elderberry, spirea, butterfly weed, wild buckwheat, and phlox.

As spring advances into summer, some of the more commonly known butterflies emerge, including swallowtails, parnassians, brushfoots, skippers, and “milkweed butterflies” like monarchs. These butterflies use many nectar-producing blooms including honeysuckle, lavender, aster, blanket flower, gilia, monkey-flower, goldenrod, and yarrow.

Butterflies don’t live on nectar alone. They also take water and trace minerals from patches of wet soil or sand, which means those April showers are also important for making mud.

If natural precipitation is in short supply, butterfly mud sites can be created and maintained with frequent light watering of a bare patch in a sunny but wind-protected area.

Some butterfly enthusiasts combine the needs for sugar and water with special mixes to feed and attract their favorite backyard visitors. Here’s one recipe from the Pilchuck Audubon Society: