Butteflies In the Forest

I’m so happy that I started with digital photography. I’ve gotten some pretty good close-ups of the tiny denizens of the forests we’ve been staying in.

The number of butterflies I’ve seen since just before Spring sprung is phenomenal. I never realized that butterflies gathered together until I would see flocks(?) of them rise up as I stepped near. I did my best to identify them using info on the internet.

Dreamy Duskywings were the most prolific butterflies I saw. They were always gathered together on the damp earth, whether it be with Spring Azures or Bumblebees like in the photo at the top of the post.

Spring Azures were also prolific and the smallest butterflies I saw. They loved to land on our shoes. They were the hardest to photograph with their wings open. They had a lovely lavender color that I couldn’t capture on the tops of their wings. The photo below was taken with my phone.

It took me a while, but I was finally able to capture some photographs of a Pipevine Swallowtail. He landed on the spot of ground that someone had peed on. Apparently, that is attractive to butterflies and bumblebees.

While we were driving along the French Broad River after leaving the Paint Creek Corridor, we came across a truck parked in the middle of the road and a man was at the side of the road with a camera. He stopped to tell us what he was photographing when he drove by us. It was an Eastern Comma he said. I realized I had taken a picture of an Eastern Comma when I was walking along Paint Creek earlier.

I’m not sure if these butterflies are Silvery Checkerspots or Mimic Crescents. Based on another butterfly I photographed in the Crescent family, I’m leaning towards Mimic Crescents.

The final photograph I have of a butterfly was a happy accident. This Pearl Crescent landed on a flower I was photographing and almost seemed to pose with her wings spread.