Time for some butterflies

Besides being hummingbird season, this time of year is also the best for butterflies in my yard. The butterfly bushes earn their keep and attract all sorts of the beauties. I'd like to take a look at some of them right now.

Since the types of butterflies that I see changes almost every day, with some species only stopping by very rarely, the images here don't represent the only types of butterflies that I see -- they're just what I've seen recently.

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First up is the Common Buckeye. These two may have been interested in mating, although I don't know anything about the mating cycles of butterflies. It seems late in the year for that, doesn't it?

These two didn't seem to mind me too much. They did fly up when I moved closer, but as you can see they settled right back down quickly.

Unless I angered them, and this is actually a butterfly attack. Hard to tell.

Next up is one that is pretty hard to get a photo of, as they're quite shy and fly very quickly:

It's some sort of Sulphur -- I think a Cloudless Sulphur. Really difficult to tell, and this is the best photo I could get. Maybe I'll get lucky and get a better photo of this species later, which should help me ID it.

Another difficult one to photograph:

This appears to be a Variegated Fritillary, and is not one that I see very often. It too was a very fast flyer that didn't stay in one place for more than a couple of seconds, so I was lucky to even get this one photo.

On the other hand, this Gray Hairstreak didn't mind me at all:

It even made things easier for me by visiting the basil flowers right on the deck. No hiking out to the backyard to get photos of this one!

The best thing about hairstreaks (this species at least) is that they rub their hindwings together, making those little "tails" move in a way that looks like antennae, so it's hard to tell which end is the head.

The hairstreaks don't visit the butterfly bushes, but these guys certainly do:

They're Skippers of some sort. I don't have the patience to figure out which species, as there are so many of them. My butterfly guide has over 50 pages of skippers, skipperlings, and related species, and they're really not that different looking.

Besides, these things really dart around! They'll sit still for a decent amount of time, but when they fly, they really move.

Plus, they look very different when their wings are closed. I like them with the wings open, as they look like little advanced jet fighters to me.

Are some of these the same species? I can't tell. There are dozens of them around my garden right now though -- they're the most common butterfly I see.

I don't care how common they are -- every single one of them is welcome here. A garden without butterflies is just... dreary.

I'll post about more butterflies as soon as I photograph different species. Shouldn't take long at this time of year!