Sunday was all about butterflies

1 Gulf Fritirllary


2 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail


3 Zebra Longwing..the Florida state butterfly, not rare but far from a common sight...I saw them as yellow and black but they photographed as B&W...young ones are more yellow then white on black


4 Spicebush Swallowtail


5 Another Spicebush


6 Sulphur


7 Palamedes Swallowtail


Hope you like butterflies! This is by far the best sighting I have found in over 2 years. We lost most of our butterflies in the horrible winter of 2009, then this spring without rain cost the wildflowers...now with rain plentiful again both are coming back. The names are as I know them..there are some that have close look alikes....Shirley

Thanks for sharing that set with us Shirley. You certainly captured a host of beautiful butterflies.

They really are beautiful, arent they. Were these shots taken in the wild or at a butterfly farm? I have never seen so many different types at the same time.

Stop making me jealous! I love all of them, and we only get quite boring ones here by comparison (no Swallowtails except as extreme rarities)!

xx

Thanks to all of you for the nice comments...yep, I found them along the forest roads. There were other kinds around too..the small skippers and a few colorful small ones that didn't settle well. There is a smallish bright orange butterfly (sulphur family) that I see settle but then can't see it...found out yesterday that the underside of the wings is a pale grey with pastel markings..it just disappears in plain sight! There is a nice butterfly garden nearby..I went there the week they opened for business and not gone back....yet. That place has just those found in Florida and it has nice people too. Shirley

What a fantastic assortment. Some of those look huge.

Unfortunately our Butterfly population has been hit hard with the rain this summer. That said I've noticed a lot more over the last week or so.