Neat that you found a moth with a cross on it in a cemetary. A religious experience indeed!

I second Elaine's comment! That's a super neat looking moth.
Welcome home Melanie! Now you'll have to recover from your trip.

Even Dad got freaked out at that moth. I asked him if he saw: a cross, Jesus on the cross, an angel, or the Virgin Mary. And this was right after a Tiger Swallowtail landed on Dad's arm, too! Didn't get a picture of that, but it was cool. I think Dad liked it, too. Come to think of it, I'll have to ask if a butterfly has landed on him before. He sweats enough in the garage and talks about them flying around but I don't know if one ever made contact. Hmm...

Oh, and that Clymene Moth (the cross one) only flies from June to August, I think my book said, so it was good timing on our part! I could have done without the record heat that we apparently brought with us from Florida. The last day there were flash flood warnings so we didn't want to risk taking Grandma out for her birthday. So we ordered pizza instead!

Okay, I have a lot more pictures but I had to wait until I got home for fast internet. Then, I uploaded my cemetery pictures and I've been in genealogy discussions for days! But now it's time for bird, butterflies, and other random critters!

Cardinal with the hanging basket in the background. I saw one of the hummingbirds eat from the flowers and told Grandma.



I love this Goldfinch and Tufted Titmouse combination.



I took my Unicorn Caterpillars with me because I've never raised that species. And there's plenty of Black Cherry up there for them to eat. I made Dad go fetch it, though. Once they got bigger, they looked a lot more like the picture in my book.



There was one Cardinal that was so vivid red, my brother said it looked like someone painted it.



Cardinals are definitely the most numerous species at Grandma's house, although the Goldfinches are pretty populous, too. Heck, she'd have more hummingbirds if they learned to share.



Grandma had one sunflower seed that became a flower. It went to seed so my aunt laid it on the ground so the birds could have at it.

Okay, I have to make a separate post for this bird. What is it? The shape, size, and eyes remind me of a Brown Thrasher, but it's the wrong color.

Could it be a juvenile mockingbird? Did you ever see it at the bird feeders? My mockers never, ever come to the bird feeders.

Okay, back to things I can identify!

My aunt seemed really excited when this Red-Bellied Woodpecker showed up. If she wants to see them, she should come to my house! She thought it must be a juvenile due to lack of color.



Hummingbird coming in for a landing!



Get up in there!



I saw a Robin! I've only seen one before and it was also in Grandma's yard. There were actually two, but by the time I got outside I only saw one.



I think this is a really roughed-up Eastern-Tailed Blue. I accidentally disturbed it while searching the Pawpaw it's sitting on.



The roof at Lowe's. Are these all pigeons? Why do they look different?



Sachem on the neighbor's butterfly bush. I always see a lot of Sachems in WV.



Walking back through what used to be Grandpa's vegetable garden, I saw a little variety. One year, Grandma had the guy not mow for a few weeks before I came up. And there's clover that grows there. It's a host plant for the Clouded Sulphur and they were everywhere. Not to mention all the other pollinators. But my aunt is in charge now and she had the guy come mow while we were visiting. Here's a Gray Hairstreak.



There are always a ton of Eastern-Tailed Blues. But I like how in this picture the sun caught the orange spots and they look like they're glowing.



Okay, dinner time. More later!

Ooh, Elaine posted. I didn't think about Mockingbirds. I never think about Mockingbirds. It didn't come to the feeder, just stayed on the ground, if I remember correctly.

dyzzypyxxy said:Could it be a juvenile mockingbird? Did you ever see it at the bird feeders? My mockers never, ever come to the bird feeders.

I agree, Mockingbird. Love to watch their aerobatics! Mellie your photos are so, so nice. How I wish I had a caterpillar like that Unicorn. What is it? rather what will it become? a sphinx moth or what?

Thanks, Cheryl. Here's a link to BAMONA that shows you what the Unicorn cat will look like as an adult moth. http://www.butterfliesandmoths... It's not a part of the Sphinx family. Those are the "hornworms" that have the noticeable horn on the tail end.

It's always fun to find a "new" caterpillar. Here's the post when I first found them. http://garden.org/thread/view_... They were way more red than brown so that's why I said they didn't look like the picture in my book. Credit to Christine @wildflowers for identifying them for me.

Okay, I'm falling asleep while typing. Off to bed for me!

Well, I think I just caught up on all the sleep I didn't get on vacation! Back to the pictures!

So I saw a new bird on the feeder and I asked my aunt what it was. She said it was either a House Finch or Purple Finch. I looked at All About Birds and I think they look more like House Finches. We actually don't get these in Florida. As soon as my aunt said House Finch, I thought about all the pictures I'd seen on here and went "duh". But it's different when you see them in real life.




Goldfinches always remind me of Grandma's house. You can see why.



I had a few Black Swallowtails emerge while I was there. I got to show Grandma and her sister, my great-aunt. That was pretty fun.



Kept feeding the Unicorn caterpillars.



There were lots of butterflies at the cemetery where Grandpa is buried. The first one I saw was an American Painted Lady.



There were a bunch of Carolina Satyrs. I see them in Florida, but usually only when I'm in the woods. They're a woodland butterfly.



This Sachem was just hanging on the fence.



I saw a Skipper on some Queen Anne's Lace, but I quickly realized it was not okay. It was close to dying. No way would a Skipper let me pick it up. BAMONA said this was a Least Skipper. I can't swear I've ever seen one of them before. They're supposed to be the smallest skipper in North America. You can see it's pretty tiny.



There were actually two leaf hoppers on the underside of this milkweed leaf, but I scared one off.



There was a Spicebush Swallowtail in the milkweed, too.



I found a Carolina Satyr with its wings open! I wasn't even sure what it was at first because I never see them with their wings open!



This Tiger Swallowtail was missing about half its wings, but it was still having fun nectaring.



I leaned over to look at this plant and there was a skipper on it! BAMONA said they couldn't ID it.



Dad was yelling at me to hurry because it was thundering pretty bad, but I got this Eastern-Tailed Blue right near the truck.



Back at the house, my aunt seemed really excited when this Hairy Woodpecker showed up.



After missing the Eastern Towhee twice, I took about fifty pictures when it showed up again.



Another Black Swallowtail release. I've had a lot of males in this batch.



On the way home, I did release a female Black Swallowtail somewhere in North Carolina.

What fun Melanie and great photos!
I actually have house finches. I guess I'm about as far south as they come in FL.
The color on those brand new black swallowtails is outstanding!

Butterflies are always most impressive when they're new and shiny.

Hi, everyone! I created a thread over in the Wildflowers forum to feature the flowers I saw. There's still some butterfly and bug pictures in there because you can't keep them off some of those flowers! Check it out over here: The thread "Wild, Wonderful, West Virginia Wildflowers" in Wildflowers forum

Thanks Mellie, I sure enjoyed my visit to WV...beautiful subjects and beautiful pics. Great stuff!