Had some butterfly visitors this morning.

Ohhh so very pretty!

The yellow one is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, the black one is a Spicebush Swallowtail.

Wow, those pictures are Awesome gailo

Thanks. I have the photo bug, it's my hobby too. Thanks for the names Thorn. I came here on recommendation from you. It is a great forum.

I got this one today thought it was pretty!

Simply gorgeous all!

That is a great shot Rita!

Thanks.. Got lucky to catch it

Great Pix to all. Love butterflies. Thanks for sharing. Sue

Woweee, AMAZING pictures!

WOOOOOW!! Rita that is a winner photo!!!

Gailo>>>> BEAUTIFULLLLLLLLLL!!!

Anybody know what this little butterfly is?

Hi, Gail! It's Me< Thornius! Your butterfly is a Fritillary of some sort, possibly a Great-Spangled, Meadow, or Silver edged Fritillary. I could not find an EXACT match, but all of these are similar to your Butterfly. I used eNature.com to look at them.

These little guys must love black eyed susans..I shot this one on my susies the other day. Is this the same butterfly?? lol



Here\'s the bigger version.

I believe it is!

Wow! I loved all of them. Thanks so much for sharing!

Very cool!

This Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was telling me to take his picture this morning, so I obliged him! Here he is!

I was just in time with that pic too, as soon as I took them my camera went dead! And there were tons of others I wanted to get pics of. :p

Beautiful, Loz......and you have Zinnias, one of my favorite flowers!

oooh beautiful!! I think he was posing too!

I have TONS of Zinnias.....tons and tons of them! I just love them--for attracting butteflies, but also because they are great cut flowers and last a long time in a vase. Later on I'll go outside and take some pictures of them all---my pond is surrounded by them.

I think he was posing there too!

Beautiful pictures, folks...gotta love those flutterbyes.

loz, next time you have an emergency "power down" with your digital, sometimes you can quickly swap the batteries to the opposite position in the camera and eke out a few more shots. Try it next time...doing that has saved me from pulling out my hair several times recently. lol!

Can I ask you how you take such perfect pictures like this? I am a new gardener and try to take pic's like this, but don't get close enough I think.

I'll try that next time! I was close to pulling out my hair this morning!

I think a lot of the pic quality has to do with the camera you have....I really like my sony camera....but I think we've all taken bum shots before. It's mostly camera quality and practice! My camera goes almost everywhere with me. Never know when you'll spot a good picture!

Thanks Thorn!

One more pic today..........twice as nice!

wOW! i'VE NEVER GOTTEN two AT ONCE BEFORE.

They're all over the place!!!! I was really excited when they landed next to each other!

I love the color of this lantana and with this pretty fella, on it its even better!

Nice picture Karrie---very pretty and colorful!

Beautiful - all of them!

Keep up the gorgeous pictures of pretty butterflies and flowers!

thats really pretty Karrie and i love lantana too!!!

again, wow

Wrennie, gailo, who started this topic is one of my birding buddies on the birdersworld.com forum. She discovered this site on her own and started posting when I told her I was a member, too. We birders switch to butterflys, insects, dragonflies, and wildflower photography when birding gets slow, usually in the HOTTEST part of the Summer (RIGHT NOW!!!!!)

Besides I love butterflies and flowers. This is such a nice forum and FULL of info.

Beautiful pics all! To see gorgeous butterfly in the garden kinda makes your eart sing, don't you think?
Here's one of a black swallowtail larva on dill:



Now click on photo to see the adult on thistle.

Very nice Neko!

What a cool picture Neko - and I love the way it changes to the adult photo!

What a beautiful picture, Karrie!

Super pix all!!! Here's my contribution. Please notice I got a pleasing angle of the hose, too. Don't you just hate when that happens? lol! At least there was also some nice shadow play to add interest.

Beeeuteeeful!!

Wow, Rosie, that's a beautiful picture of the butterfly and that's a nice hose, too! Geesh, I wish I had a camera with a good zoom lens so I could take some pictures of my butterflies. If I get too close they fly away!

VERY nice pics, everybody!

Nice picture Rosie

I got a picture of a tiger swallowtail I kind of like because of the plain dark background. I'm not sure what it is. Maybe someone's jeans. Just thought I'd share.

thats beautiful!


thanks for sharing

Beautiful picture!

That's hot.

Beautiful picture!!! Whatever the dark blue is it really makes the butterfly POP!!

Thanks! The butterflies sure like the lantana. Last year it was lavender. I think next year I will plant a butterfly bush too.

Great pix, all. Planted lantana this year. Just sat there for the longest time. Now it has taken off like wild fire. Just love it. And the butterflies do too. I have many butterflies this year. Different kinds and pretty. Wish I had a dig. camera! SANTA??? Sue

Here's a few of my pics today!

Nice shots Loz!

Oh is that a monarch or one of the others that look like a monarch? It is beautiful Loz.

Beautiful Loz. I'm going to plant some Lantana and a butterfly bush next year and maybe I will get some more visitors!

Awesome picture, Galio!

I love this thread!!! Butterflies are like sparkling jewels for us to enjoy.

This beauty hung around the Rose of Sharon for a few days and then disappeared. I had never seen one before and it was fun doing the research to ID it.

The first butterfly picture - what flower is that?

It is lantana.

Oh - I see that now when I looked back on replies. I don't think I can have that up here in ND. ?? Beautiful pics!

It would be an annual. It is an annual here too.

I have a pic of a hummingbird moth on a petunia. They are kind of interesting.

Beautiful shot, gailo. You must have a great camera to get macros like that.

I love those little hummingbird moths.....they're all over the place here! Cool picture!

I want hummingbirds!!!!

Beautiful shot, Gailo! Love your pictures!

ND, put out Hummingbird feeders and they will come!!!

I think this is called a red spotted purple. They like the wild cherries that are fermenting on the ground. They are beauties.

Love the colors and design in the top one. Those are both great shots!

Beautiful pictures, Gailo. I've never seen the Red-spotted Purple. If the undersides of the wings are that pretty, what do they look like on top? Must be like stained glass.

Wait a minute...are both of those shots of the same butterfly? Holy cow...how pretty!!!

I'm not sure if this is a Spicebush Swallowtail or not. Its wings were so tattered, it actually seemed to have difficulty flying.

It's really sad to see the Butterflies with ragged wings this late in the season. Even the Hummingbirds are fighting them for territory. I think this is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail...

Right on BOTH counts, Rosie!

Thanks Thornius...I'm never sure since they have so many different ID characteristics. Plus the fact I've had butterflies this year that I've never seen before. Could this be a result of the odd weather patterns and can I expect to see more varieties in the future?

Very pretty...thanks for sharing .
I agree that its a shame to see them with the ragged wings too!

Penny, if you could see the way the Hummers are bombarding the butterflies anywhere near the Rose of Sharons, you would get an idea of why their wings are so torn up. I knew they would fight each other but not the butterflies. I watched one little male Hummer attack two male Gold Finch the other day and they actually ran (flew) from him. He's just a big ol' bully.

Wow...i would never have thought that either...poor things and their wings are so delicate and the behaviour of the hummers really surprises me the most!!!!

I saw a new butterfly today. It was striking and not very cooperative. I googled it. It is a red admiral also known as a red admirable.

Beautiful....thanks for sharing!!!

Great shots, Gailo. I've never seen one of those before. Since the color on the top of the wings is more orangey, I wonder if they named it "Red" for the stripes on the underside of the wings? Whatever...it is Admirable!

Caught a pair of Pearl Crescents doing a little dance on my Black Eyed Suzies yesterday. They were so entertaining I shot a quick little video too. lol

Larger Image & video here .

Now that is a really cool shot! And that was a great video!

That is a GORGEOUS picture, Jakesangel!!!

Thx guys..I love to follow them around and catch'em on camera wherever they land. The neighbors probably think I'm nuts! lol

This is a Grey Hairstreak I saw today while out in the yard. I don't think I've seen one of these here before. The wind was blowing so he's a little blurry.

Larger photo here

Gorgeous shot of the Pearl Crescents...they are a sweet butterfly. They are so hard to shoot and take lots of patience. I have the best luck using the Sports Mode (stop action) for butterflies and birds.

The pearl crescents and the hairstreak are great. We have those here too. Both of them are quick and not so easy to photo. Yesterday we were out on the Bay and a monarch hitched a ride. Then we got home and there was a monarch on my potted hibiscus. So here they are.

Got this variegated fritillary yesterday (Mon). I was playing with the frames in Paint Shop Pro and sort of liked this modern thing.

GORGEOUS! The Monarch looks like he was pretty happy deep in your hibiscus!