Butterfly

Some days you just need to see butterflies. This is one of those days.

So here are several photos of a male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly or two. There were three swallowtail butterflies around at one point, so I'm not completely certain that all of these photos are of the same guy. I think so though (with one noted exception).

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You can tell it's a male because there is only a small amount of color showing on the back of the wings in the tail area:

Females have a lot more blue down here -- the yellow would transition to blue then to black.

At one point there was an old, faded guy here as well as the bright, vibrant youngster:

Notice all of the damage to the edges of his wings. I like to think these are bite marks from bird beaks, but I'm not really sure. I imagine this old-timer has had a lot of close escapes.

Back to the young guy now:

He's feeding on one of my butterfly bushes (Buddleia davidii), which you must add to your garden if you like butterflies:

Butterflies are on these flowers all summer long! I remove the spent blooms to keep them coming all season. They're not native, but they're a butterfly magnet, so I grow them along with plenty of native flowers.

Although if he flew away I knew he would soon loop around and return to the bush, this fellow would often flap his wings vigorously while he was drinking.

Would you please keep still! I'm trying to get some decent photos here!

Backlit by the late afternoon sun.

I love watching butterflies almost as much as I love watching bees, and the swallowtails are some of my favorites.

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