What a beautiful photo Avedon!

It could be the Southern Cloudy Wing http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

Love the Spicebush Swallowtail ... we see those down here in Florida sometimes too. Your second photo looks to be a Skipper that I've seen here also, I haven't taken the time to ID it yet:

I just looked in my Florida B'fly book and I think mine is the Zabulon Skipper, female. It looks identical to one down towards the bottom of this page:

http://www.naba.org/chapters/n...

Yours looks like the Beazilian Skipper http://www.butterfliesandmoths...

Oh, thank you so much Josephine! That certainly looks to be a better match for mine! I found more photo's here: http://www.naba.org/chapters/n... and it looks exactly like the one that I saw in my garden! My Fla B;fly book says it's a stray in my part of Florida but a resident in the southern part of the state.

Lucky you Avedon with the Spicebush ST!

You are welcome Lin, I am not an expert, I just happened to know that one.
Oh! and thank you for the thumbs up!

I took these today.
I believe I got Lin's Zabulon Skipper


I don't know what this one is



And a cloudless sulphur ~~~ I believe this is a male as it had not the least bit of faint edging on the upper wing.

Thanks, everybody, I am loving all your pictures, too.

Great shots Ann! I am so bad at comparing photo's but if your first one isn't the Zebulon Skipper it might be the Tawny-edged Skipper or maybe the Whirlabout. It sure is a pretty one, love the color patterns in the wings. That second one may be one of the Cloudy? or Dusky-wings. Love the Cloudless Sulphur, so pretty against the red flowers. We used to have hundreds of them at our other house always converging on the Senna tree in the backyard.

Thanks Lin. I have Sennas on my want list!

Ann, 2nd pic above looks like a 'Sooty Wing', of the Skipper tribe. The 3rd one in post on previous page was an American Painted Lady, the 5th one, a 'Sooty Wing'
Butterfly pictures make my day.

Well thank you very much J!!!!!!

Right you are on the sooty wing. As well as the Painted Lady & the other Sooty Wings. I'm so happy you ID'd them! I just haven't had time to try & look them up. And with ones such as the Sooty Wing that I am not familiar with, I wouldn't know where to start. We didn't have them where I used to live.

I saw a clear wing humming bird moth the other day but I was too far away from my camera & couldn't get to it in time. Drat! But I will get it yet.

Ann: I had a Senna Bicapsularis ("Christmas Senna") in the backyard at our other house for a few years; it's a larval host plant for the Cloudless Sulphur Butterfly. My elderly backyard neighbor would cut a twig and stick it right back in the sandy soil where it would always root well for her. She gave me cuttings a few times but I never could get them to root so she rooted one for me and I planted it in the yard where it grew to a nice size and was so beautiful in December when it was in full, glorious bloom! Those yellow flowers are just sooo pretty but alas, my big tree died for some reason. When we were cleaning out the other house to get it ready to rent out, she gave me another rooted cutting that I brought with me to this house. It's been almost two years and it's still alive but very slow growing. I think it needs more sun than I'm giving it so I will probably move it to a different location in the yard next spring.

This was my pretty tree at the other house; I think it probably died from the stress of two consecutive winters of hard freezes.

They are beautiful! I had a weeping, dwarf cassia (senna family) down south which was gorgeous but that particular one will not grow up here. It took hits from those 2 cold winters down there but did survive.
I love all the varieties of them & am certainly going to get some as well as the bottlebrush.

on the Crape Myrtles today and practicing their Lily acrobatics.

Beautiful, beautiful, beautiful Janice!

Sometimes I get aggravated that the thumbs up feature only allows us to give 1 thumbs up. This is one of those times I would like to give 2 or 3 thumbs up so this will have to substitute....

Thanks Ann!!

Today they were very "flitty" and not wanting to pose nicely. They were very busy.

I never seem to get ones that want to pose nicely. I watch them flit here & there & never stop for more than a flat out second. We have some lovely tiger swallowtails & zebra swallowtails & the black ones too (they never stop long enough for me to tell if they are black ST or pipe vine St or what). I watch these lovelies every day & just know that if I get the camera I will be running all over the property for the next hour with nothing to show for my efforts.