Yesterday at my place

Lots of butterfly activity for a change. And I had the camera (for a change :D).

Hmm, I just posted five other pictures and they're not showing here yet. Wonder what I did wrong?

Anyway, I just looked out front and saw three tigers and a monarch on my coneflowers. brb

Does there have to be text to accompany an image, in order for it to post? Was that my problem?

Well, let's try it again then:

And again:

This guy has been around for a couple of days (I recognize him because his tail is broken). He has lots of buddies today.

Did I say tail? I meant wing. LOL

Last one from yesterday:

Now for today's.

The newest guest:

wow awesome pics

beautiful!

Me too!!!

Wonderful shots, both of you. ;-)

Beginner--wonderful pics. Must be fun to have that many beautiful butterflies and be observant and quick enough to catch them with the camera! Good job!

Now, can you ID any of the butterflies? I am trying to learn to and I'm having a fitful time of it! Thanks. t.

Beautiful shots. Aren't butterflies fun? Thanks for sharing!

A lovely series of butterfly pictures. Here are some names for the butterflies in your first picture:
The larger butterfly is the Silver-spotted Skipper Epargyreus clarus http://www.nestbox.com/Calvert/butterflies/sssk.htm
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/usa/607.htm
while the small one is also a skipper, Peck's Skipper or Yellowpatch Skipper Polites coras http://www.bfly.org/SkipperGallery/PecksSkipper1.html
http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/usa/548.htm

What is the name of the black butterfly. I have been chasing him around for days trying to get a good shot.

What kind of camera do you have?

The black butterfly is the dark form of the female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Papilio glaucus http://www.npwrc.usgs.gov/resource/distr/lepid/bflyusa/usa/703.htm
The other swallowtails are males of the same species.

This message was edited Jul 31, 2005 9:55 AM

Sorry I ended up doing a post-and-run, guys. I had an unexpectedly busy weekend and didn't have time to check this thread til now.

tabasco---nah, I don't know so much about butterflies. I just like to look at 'em. I'm sure I'll pick up more knowledge as I go along. My "identification" on Friday would have consisted of "some little tortoiseshell-looking dude, a brown one with white spots, some kind of swallowtail, a Tiger swallowtail, a little yellow guy, and a Monarch."

kennedyh---wow, you mean the black swallowtail and the yellow swallowtail are the opposing sexes of the same species? I would never have guessed. Thanks for all the links, I definitely have to assign myself some homework.

The silver-spotted skipper is interesting. The spots photograph white, but when the little thing is flying the spots catch the light and are very reflective.

Mimidi---The camera is a Sony Cyber-shot DSC-F717. I think it's discontinued now, but there is supposedly a similar replacement. I like this one because it has a 10x zoom and creates HUGE pictures (2048 x 1536 pixels). Most of these are radically cropped, but still had to be resized down before I posted them here.

Thanks to everyone else for their comments.

Those are awesome pics!!!

Mark

Beautiful pics! I especially like the one of the dark form ETS. That would be extremely hard to ID out flying around. You can barely see stripes on it tho in the pic.

Now I'm confused ... the dark one looks like what I've been calling a Spicebush butterfly ... I have a ton of them but only a couple of Tiger Swallowtails ... I have only one butterfly identification book ... maybe I need another!

thankyou for all the IDs. Helped me a lot. (-:

Butterfly bush is doing its job attracting the butterflies.

Nice shot. The sun really lit the little guy up.

Now, maybe there's something amiss with my butterfly bush, but to my butterflies, it's their second choice. What they really LOVE is the purple verbena.

Beautiful shot...Thanks for sharing!
The butterfly looks so pretty with the purple flowers.