Monday, September 27, 2010

Black Swallowtail Butterflies

Butterflies have been flying everywhere this summer. In the last two weeks, I have seen them on the butterfly bush--counting a dozen or more every day.



Here a fritillary and Pipevine Swallowtail are on the butterfly bush. The pipevine is interesting because at one angle you see a flash a blue that isn't shown in the field guide.




At this angle you can't see the flash of blue.


Here, you see the blue!


And here I captured a blurry flash of the blue as the butterfly flew right in front of me. Now someone should tell me what a pipevine is since it's not in my wildflower field guide.



Besides the butterfly bush, spicebush swallowtail butterflies were on the zinnias which make a good nectar flower for bees and butterflies. The blue here seems to be not affected by the angle.

I've read many comments that there are more butterflies this summer in this area. I think it might be that there seemed to be more flowers all summer but I am not sure since I planted more flowers this year.

7 comments:

  1. Really enjoyed the second photo, well done! The last photo is actually a dark form female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail not a Spicebush Swallowtail, these are easy to mix up.

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  2. Wonderful photos! Don't know what a Pipevine is either, but wow, the flutter-bys!

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  3. We've seen more butterflies this year, too, but I really think it's because we had a bumper crop of zinnias.

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  5. Wow..that Pipeline is very cool..its strange how u dont always see the blue..you captured it well.
    Hope i see one someday!

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  6. How very very stunning . I do love butterfly also.

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