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.

Screech Owl of Late Summer

I finally figured out to edit the video from my camera. I taped the sounds of a screech owl the other night and wanted to share with you. I hope you can hear the owl over the cicadas.