Another Butterfly

This last week a White Admiral Butterfly has been flitting through my yard, and finally yesterday perched long enough for me to take several photos.

The upper side of the wings is black and white, but the underside is an entirely different color.

After eating its fill on the daisies in a pot on my deck, he flitted over to the flower bed and perched on some Yarrow for dessert.

Swallowtail's Got the Blues

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail and Wild Iris

June 28, 2014

I'm linking up with Eileen's Saturday Critters.

Swallowtail Tease

For the last week or so I've been watching the Swallowtails flit through my yard.  They've landed briefly on a flower, and then soared high in the air.  They've waited to appear until I've had my hands buried in the dirt planting flowers or when I'm watering flowers.  They've teased me when I've stepped briefly outside with my camera left inside.  Yesterday, though, the Violas in the planter box on my deck tempted one to linger a while.   

And then a few hours later I managed to get one photo at the Wild Iris in my flower bed.

They're welcome to sample any of my flowers!
By the way, the species that we have here is the Canadian Tiger Swallowtail.

Swallowtail

Canadian Tiger Swallowtail, July 1, 2013

In Search of Spring

With the yard covered in snow and new snow on the deck, we're wondering where spring is.  It seems to have lost its way, so for now I guess I'll have to make do with remembered color.....

Butterfly Conservatory, Part Two

There were many varieties of butterflies at the Butterfly Conservatory. Some were easier to photograph than others, and some completely defied my abilities to capture because they were constantly in motion. Below is one of the larger ones, the Rice Paper or Large Tree Nymph. Click on the collages for a larger view. Next are Common Birdwings.

Another similar butterfly is the Cairns Birdwing, along with the smaller photos of the Common Mormon and the Julia.

One of the more beautiful was the Blue Morpho. The underside of the wings are a dull brown color, but the upper side is a brilliant blue. They were only still when they were feeding on the oranges that were put out, and then the blue was mostly hidden. I spent a lot of time trying to capture the blue, with mixed results.

I hope I have correctly identified all of these butterflies from the little pamphlet I bought at the Conservatory, but if I have misidentified any feel free to correct me.

Butterfly Conservatory

When we were at Niagara Falls, we visited the Butterfly Conservatory in Ontario. It's a fantastic place to visit. The tropical landscaping inside the Conservatory is very well done, and there are a couple of thousand butterflies flitting around. There are over 40 species of butterflies represented. Everywhere you look there are butterflies, from very small to very large. You would think it would be easy to photograph them with so many flying about, but most of them do not sit still for very long at all, and all of the foliage makes focusing on the butterflies difficult. I did get some good shots, but today I'll show you a few of the "artistic" images.

I haven't done any editing on these shots. They are just as they came out of the camera.

You wouldn't believe how many photos I had to delete, many more than I kept!

Tomorrow, more butterflies.