wings that caught my eye

Butterflies are amazing!! End of post. Ha, not even close. 

I have been watching for flutterby's throughout the summer. Earlier in the season, they flew fast and high. Monarchs and Swallowtails in particular were close to impossible to photograph. Bring on the challenge!

In July, butterflies seem to be everywhere on our property. Eventually, they began to land more often and fly lower. Numbers have dwindled in August, but they are still around. Here are some wings that caught my eye, not all butterflies: 

closed wing monarch

open wing monarch

pink (tiger?) moth

very small orange butterfly 
(each set of wings was the size of a thumbnail)

"oh look, a puddle"

Red Spotted Purple, puddling along


a first (for me) really interesting find

American Ermine Moth (aka white dalmatian moth)


looks like a heart on the fuzzy head


layered wings & striped legs

a smaller pink moth, the size of a fingernail

such interesting tribal type markings, and those legs! 

this guy kept looking at me
while I was checking out his circle patterns


camera photo of the above friendly guy

fast moving smaller winged wonder
(barely got a phone pic)


orange winged wonder, opposite coloring of above
(kinda blurry)


white moth spotted in June

a flash of white caught my eye at the bottom of our property
(the best of my terrible long range pigeon shots)

prehistoric flyers
almost guaranteed to (re) appear after hay is cut


my beloved hummers love sitting on our deck wires
and keep a vigilant eye on their window feeder



Yellow Swallowtail in July

orange fritillary

a (smaller) Monarch spotted yesterday

The butterflies and moths are winding down for the summer. I truly enjoy watching their carefree ways! The Monarchs are really fond of an area at the bottom of our property. I talked Brad into leaving some of the thistles up for them. Consequently, I have a lot of photos of butterflies on thistles. Catching butterflies in flight is much harder. I almost got a clean inflight shot. Almost.

Brad had a great idea, and it sparked a future project. Easy to guess, a butterfly/wildflower garden. This will be my second one. As my younger daughters Girl Scout Troop Leader, we researched and put a butterfly garden in the Village Park many moons ago. Ours will be significantly larger. It will be a good learning process in a manageable scale, for our Prairie Area. Which may or may not ever become a restored native prairie with trails, the way I hoped. At least we can continue riding around the future butterfly garden! Will post about it when it is in action. It has to cool off first!!