Sundays at Little Walden

Oh happy day!!

Eastern Tailed-Blue

Common Buckeye

Monarch!

This is a male, you can tell by the scent patches on the wings.

What a cutie!

Fridays at Reynolda Gardens

Went to Reynolda Gardens early again, and no butterflies.  They must be late sleepers.  Anyway, I did see something that made me happy:

Because when these pink fuzzy flowers are in bloom, that means we'll have these:

Common Buckeye - These are one of my favorites, of course I probably say that about most butterflies!  This one was taken in September of last year at RG.

I planned on going back to RG after work Friday and ended up working until 7:30.  Still went, but no butterflies.  I still enjoyed it and stayed until it started getting dark, I love it there even without butterflies!

Also on Saturday I saw something that made my heart fill - a Monarch!  It's about time for them too.  I actually saw lots of butterflies in my yard Saturday, but I was pulling weeds - so no camera. :(  Oh well, since my vacation (woo!) is coming up soon, I will have lots of opportunities for butterflying.

Sundays at Little Walden

Didn't know if I would make it to Little Walden today, it rained all morning.  It cleared up, but no sun.  It was actually a little chilly, but no complaints here!

 Hummingbird Moth

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Fridays at Reynolda Gardens

Beautiful morning at Reynolda Gardens!

I hate to think why this spider was lurking in the phlox, but I have to admit he was so pretty!

Green Lynx Spider

Sundays at Little Walden

Another beautiful day at the Little Walden Nature Trail.

 Skipper

 Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

 Teeny-tiny little butterfly.  I believe this is a Least Skipper.

Horace's Duskywing

Fridays at Reynolda Gardens - Take 2

I got up early Friday morning to go to Reynolda Gardens - and no butterflies!  I did get some yummy veggies from the farmer's market, tomatoes, squash, potatoes, peppers and crowder peas (which I have never had before!).  There were lots of bumble bees though.

Loving my new lens.

So, of course I had to try again after work and I was not disappointed.  Swallowtails and Skippers everywhere!

 Sharing.

 Yin and Yang.

See the little skipper shadow?

Sundays at Little Walden

The Tanglewood Butterfly Garden and the Little Walden Pond are becoming a tradition for me on Sundays.  It's so peaceful there I love it.

There were tons of Skippers there today.  They especially seem to like the Lantana.  I should get more for my own garden.

These 2 are the same Skipper.  This is a Zabulon Skipper.  So bright and colorful!  I love when they open their wings.  They remind me of tiny little fighter planes.

I wasn't sure what type of Skipper this was, so I checked by book, then checked on-line, then rechecked my book, and I think this is one is actually a Zabulon also.  This is a female and the first one is a male.

I got a new lens (Olympus M Zuiko 45mm f1.8) for my camera (Olympus E-PL1) this week-end.  I have wanted this lens for a looooonng time!  By itself it is not the lens to use for butterfly shooting, but with my MCON-P01 macro converter, it's not too bad.  It takes some getting used to, I am used to zooming in and out whenever I need too and the new one is a fixed length.  But so far I am really enjoying it.  All the photos from today were taken with this lens.

I even got to use it when I got home and had a visitor in my own butterfly garden.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Fridays at Reynolda Gardens

Lots of pretty butterflies at Reynolda Gardens today.

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.  I set my white balance to fluorescent-1 on this one.  I like to use that setting because it gives photos a vintagey-purply quality.

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.  I used the popart filter on this one, which sort of super-saturates the hues.

Silver-Spotted Skipper

And a few moths, that you wouldn't really think were moths.

 Yellow Collared Scape Moth

Ailanthus Webworm Moth - love these!