Butterflies love it to be hot but not too hot. A little breeze is okay but too  much wind will toss them around so a calm day is always their preference. Humidity is acceptable up to a point but a good dry day in the 80s is probably their favorite kind of day. Oh, and don’t forget that lots of flowers should be in bloom. Mid July is usually the best time to find that around here and sure enough, these past few days have been perfect.

If you want to see lots of butterflies head for a place that looks like this….

With lots of these….

and these….

and mixes like these….

then you might find some of these….

These pictures were taken on the Butterfly Mosaic Trail at Mass Audubon’s Long Pasture Sanctuary in Cummaquid but any good sized field will do. In the Falmouth area there is the amazing Crane Wildlife Area that I personally think is the best butterfly place on the Cape but there is also the air field in Marstons Mills, the Drummer Boy Park in Brewster, Wellfleet Bay Wildlife Sanctuary and Fort Hill in Eastham to name a few more. Truro has some very fertile areas as well. All should be very busy over the next week or so with many varieties of butterflies.

Over the next few days I will be posting pictures and information about some of the more common butterflies here on the Cape, including their host plants for both nectaring adults and feeding larvae.