Fall Butterflies

Painted Lady (Vanessa cardui)

Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme)

American Coppper (Lycaena phlaeas)

Clouded Sulphur (Colias philodice)

Painted Lady Butterfly

Grey Comma Butterfly

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Butterflies

Orange

Monarch Butterfly

Head On

While usually pretty skittish, this Question Mark butterfly (Polygonia interrogationis) was too busy collecting pollen to notice my camera lens inching ever closer to it.

Orange & Green

Pearl Crescent (Phyciodes tharos) Butterfly

Blue & Green

This little butterfly called a Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon) are one of my favorite butterflies to photograph.  They are very small and move fast, but once they land on something where they are feeding, they pretty much ignore me and let me photograph them.  This is the first time I have actually seen an Azure open its wings while perched.  They generally keep their wings closed when at rest.  I have never photographed on with its wings open like this.

Bright Spring Colors

Butterfly Camouflage

The ventral wings (bottom or closed side) of many butterfly wings has a less colorful, mottled design that help butterflies blend in with their surroundings.  Both the Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) above and the Eastern Comma (Polygonia comma) below have very brightly colored dorsal wings (upper or open side).  The Red Admiral has red and white stripes, which you can partially see in the photograph above.  The Eastern Comma has several shades of bright oranges and yellows.  When their wings are closed, you have a much harder time seeing them.

Mourning Cloak Butterfly

The Mourning Cloak butterflies (Nyphalis antiopa) have finally emerged this spring.  The Mourning Cloak is one of the earliest emerging species in the spring and one of the latest flying into the autumn in Michigan.  From a photography standpoint, these are some of the easiest butterflies to photograph.  When you find them, they tend to circle in a fairly small area.  They often will let you get fairly close if you move in slowly.  While I was photographing these butterflies at Fenner Nature Center, I had a few land on my hat and even on my hand (see below).

First Butterfly Of The Season

Spring has officially sprung with the arrival of the first Eastern Comma butterfly (Polygonia comma).  I was excited to find this little guy at Fenner Nature Center last night.  I surmised with the warm weather yesterday that I might encounter a Mourning Cloak butterfly, one of the earliest emerging butterflies in Michigan, but I never saw one.  This was one was a welcome sight, nonetheless!

Monarch Migration

This past Sunday we celebrated my sister's birthday at my mother's house.  Next to her house sits a overgrown field full of wildflowers.  What can only be described as a swarm of Monarch butterflies filled the field.  They were taking advantage of the golden rod and wild aster flowers to bulk up for their migration southward.  The vast number of butterflies astounded me, as I have never seen that many in one place.  After an hour, I stopped taking photographs, as I now have enough photos of Monarch butterflies to last a lifetime!

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias tuberosa)

The majestic Monarch Butterfly has a very specific taste for special plants.  While as an adult butterfly it will feed at a number of flowers, its caterpillars need plants from the milkweed family to eat.  In Michigan we have a number of types of milkweed - common milkweed, swamp milkweed, and orange milkweed or "butterfly weed", pictured above.  The photo directly below shows an adult Monarch resting on a common milkweed leaf and the one below that shows a Monarch probing the flowers of a butterfly weed plant.

Freshly Emerged Butterfly

A couple weeks ago, I brought home a very big Monarch Butterfly caterpillar that I realized was close to starting its metamorphosis.  The day after I brought it home, it had already changed into its chrysalis and started the process of becoming a butterfly.  A few days ago, I arrived home to a freshly emerged butterfly.  Its wings were fully unfurled, so it had changed probably midday when we were at work.  I moved it out to one of our cone flowers.  Within a few minutes, it had flitted off to start its new life elsewhere.

Soaking In The Late Summer Nectar

Viceroy (Limenitis archippus)

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus)

Puddling In The Parking Lot

Many species of butterflies gain nutrients and moisture from a behavior called "puddling".  Often it actually takes place around a puddle or damp soil.  The butterfly uses its long tongue to lap up water from a puddle or moisture from the soil and any nutrients in the water and soil.  Butterflies will also use this technique on rotting fruit and even animal dung.  I photographed this Hackberry Emperor (Asterocampa celtis) butterfly puddling for nutrients in the dirt between the cracks of the asphalt parking lot at Fenner Nature Center.  It also found a place where the condenser of a car's air conditioner had dripped on the pavement providing it some moisture to collect.  I have seen other Hackberry Emperor butterflies puddling in the Fenner parking lot over the years, so there must be something there that they really like.

Future Royalty

A Monarch Butterfly caterpillar munching on a milkweed plant.