Birds, Bees, and Butterflies

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photography, postaday, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, squirrel, swallowtail, yellow tiger swallowtail

This female hummingbird has been fiercely defending her feeder, except when the male is around.

Female Ruby-Throated Hummingbird.

Male Ruby-Throated Hummingbird: “Nah! This is my feeder!”

However, the squirrel did not get the memo.

Squirrel climbing on feeder hanger, to no avail. He did climb down and went to another feeder with the same results because it was squirrel proof.

The following images are from last year’s summer end.

Bee.

Yellow Tiger Swallowtail on thistle flower.

A bee and two Swallowtails.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails

Tags

eastern tiger swallowtail, photography, postaday, swallowtail

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are common butterflies during the latter part of summer. From the photos below, you’ll see why they are named that way. Male butterflies have stripes, and blue and orange spots in the lower part of their wings, while female ones may have yellow or deep blue, almost black colors.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail feasting on Zinnia flower. This one could be a female.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail and Thistle flower. This one is a male, with more colored spots near the tail.

Female Swallowtail.

Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.

Road Trip

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photography, postaday, Ruby-throated Hummingbird, sunflower field, swallowtail, tiger swallowtail

For the next 5 weeks, I will be on a road trip across the USA, going from New Jersey to visit national parks and other scenic spots in South Dakota, Wyoming, Montana, Washington, Oregon, California, Nevada, Utah, Arizona, and Colorado. It’s a busy schedule with lots of driving, and I don’t expect to be able to post here, or to view your posts or respond to your comments. I will do that when I come back.

In the meantime, here are some photos taken in August that have not yet appeared on these pages.

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Male Ruby-throated Hummingbird.

Sunflower field.

Female Tiger Swallowtail.

Yellow Swallowtail II

Tags

deep dut park, middletown, nj, photography, postaday, swallowtail

Today a friend and I went to Deep Cut Park in Middletown, NJ. There were many yellow Swallowtails flying throughout the park, and I simply could not resist taking the following shots.

Yellow Swallowtail.

Yellow Swallowtail.

Yellow Swallowtail and bee.

Two Yellow Swallowtails feeding at same spear thistle flowerhead.

Yellow Swallowtail

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photography, postaday, swallowtail

Three shots of a yellow Swallowtail on top of a butterfly bush. Please vote for the one that you like best.

Yellow Swallotail: Photo 1

Yellow Swallowtail: Photo 2

Yellow Swallowtail: Photo 3

More Butterflies

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butterfly, edwin b forstythe national wildlife refuge, monarch, painted lady, photography, postaday, swallowtail

Milkweed was in bloom around the Visitor Center at the Edwin B. Forsythe National Wildlife Refuge, and butterflies continually fluttered among its flowers and plants. Here are some photos of the three different kinds I saw yesterday.

Painted Lady

Swallowtail

Swallowtail

Monarch with hole in wing

I’ve read that it is quite possible to repair butterfly wings, either by gluing on parts of real broken wings or cellophane! There are even videos showing how to do it.