Char, could your butterfly be a Blue? It kinda looks like this one called Reakirt's Blue ~ https://bugguide.net/node/view...

You nailed it, Christine!!!!!!!! Thank you, thank you, thank you!!!!!

Oh good, Char!! Thank you for the s.


This one landed on the car, I think it's a Hackberry Emperor. I've been seeing them around.

Christine, because you're so good at identification I'm sending you another challenge. I saw this butterfly (?) camouflaged in the leaf litter. This was a first-ever sighting for me. I couldn't see the head or any antenna, just the strange shaped wings with no real markings. I Googled "brown butterfly" and looked at a thousand images. No match. Then I Googled "brown moth" with no results. Do you have any idea what it might be????

Could it be a Large Maple Spanworm Moth? Seems to be quite a bit of variety among them. Glad you shared it!

Sara, you're my hero!!! That's it!!! Thank you so much for the correct identification.

G-Char, wow you certainly have quite a variety of butterflies in your area. I love all the photos, I'd be dropping everything to capture them also. Thanks for sharing and you can post as many as you want...

GrammaChar said:Sara, you're my hero!!! That's it!!! Thank you so much for the correct identification.

And for the acorns!

Char, sorry I'm late but looks like you have a positive ID on the moth. Good job Sherri. I'm not so good at identifying moths.

I'm not good at moths either, but thank goodness for this thread!

Other than the weird moth, there weren't many "unusual suspects" in the garden yesterday. I stood for a long time waiting for this comma (or question mark) to open its wings, but it refused to cooperate.



The little yellows behaved a bit better - but they are so flighty!





Caterpillars are easier to photograph because they can't fly away!





Lots of these "woolies" roaming around,



but sometimes things don't end well for crawling critters.



There's always drama in the garden!

So true!! Drama all the time, I have seen wasps fly off with a caterpillar too. Many predators out there.

This beautiful Pipevine Swallowtail came by to sip on the salvia flowers today. I couldn't decide on a favorite photo, so please excuse the excess.

Pipevine Swallowtails are Gorgeous, we are having a lot of those at our garden.

That is pretty don't think I've seen one of those before, thank you for sharing!

We have had a lone monarch visit our milkweed the past few days.

@GrammaChar That Pipevine is a beauty. Thanks for sharing ALL the pics .

@GrammaChar - GREAT photos!!

Char, that Pipevine Swallowtail is totally stunning, just perfect and looks so beautiful next to the bright lilac Salvia.

I've seen the wasp around my milkweed, I've also seen lizards jump and catch butterflies, I usually can rescue those, but not always.

Thanks to all for your kind words and responses. But you DO realize that it only encourages me to keep bombarding you with more photos!

Sherri, it's so hard not to intervene when Mother Nature forces us to watch uncomfortable episodes in the circle of life. I'd be a lousy National Geographic photographer because I'd want to rescue all those baby turtles and race with them to the ocean so the seagulls and crabs didn't eat them. Fortunately the dramas around my property aren't quite that dire. Crab spiders and wasps are the main culprits that I deal with - but I have conditioned myself to keep a distance. But sometimes it's hard.

@GrammaChar,

The pipevine looks like she dressed for the occasion!

Do you get many butterflies in the winter? January, and February? You can't be too terribly far from me, but you have so many! I don't have much blooming right now, but january through march I did. Maybe I see so many then because my house is one of the few in my area with a buffet at that time. They must be on their way to somewhere else, though. Too many deer here means not many flowers around. No matter the season.

This thread has really prodded me to start reading. I got down my butterfly book from the unused section of the bookshelves. Hubby loves looking at them, and so do I, but now I'm curious about their migration and life cycles, etc. Always fun to find a new interest/hobby! I think I got bit .