Well, apparently the butterflies are back and all I had to do was walk around my yard, and a little bit of the neighbor's yard, and the right-of-way which we claim seeing as how we live on the corner. It's warm outside today (my car said 80 degrees) and it's very sunny so the butterflies were out in force. I was surprised at how much diversity there was! Starting with this skipper (I don't try to ID skippers - too many of them look alike).
The skipper is feeding on Spanish Needles which are a weed here but a very good butterfly attractor. The little purple flowers in the background of the one photo are tassel flowers. They're also a weed but one of my gardening catalogs sells them (Select Seeds, I think?) and I laugh every time I see them for sale. That being said, my neighbor in the back had a lot of them blooming last year and the Phaeon Crescents were all over them. They also come in a light red color.
I found two Cloudless Sulphur cats on my Privet Cassia (Senna ligustrina). I brought them inside but I'll probably take them to MOSI this weekend.
I also saw a Cloudless Sulphur flying around but this was the best picture I could get. It's on my neighbor's firecracker fern. They LOVE this plant; they're always on it. I think Sulphurs prefer red flowers, based on my observations. But they really like this one.
And I found a Monarch cat hanging out on this seed pod. There was a Monarch flying around but I couldn't get its picture because it wasn't stopping for nothing!
And to my surprise I saw a White Peacock (also in my neighbor's yard). My neighbors across the street were backing in while I was stalking this butterfly - I can only imagine what they think I'm up to. But I think word has gotten around so folks are used to me prowling around with my camera by now. White Peacocks are skittish; this one flew anytime I got too close.
I also saw some Duskywings and I'm pretty sure I saw a Cassius Blue but I didn't get pictures of them. Duskywings are usually pretty good about holding still, but not today. I didn't even go outside with the intention of photographing butterflies today. I wanted to take a picture of my Angel's Trumpet because it looks awesome right now! Here's the pic I took. And imagine, I live on the corner and all my neighbors get to drive by this beauty!
