A Butterfly Minute

Last weekend, my husband and I photographed the butterflies at Brookside Gardens Wings of Fancy…and I took a lot of photographs – just as I did back in May (post 1, post 2). Instead of posting a barrage of pictures, I am going to pick some favorites and feature one butterfly at a time. Today the featured butterfly is a Pipevine Swallowtail.

In my photographs – that were all taken in less than a minute – the underside of the wings, with the seven spots that are a distinguishing characteristic of the butterfly, are clearly visible.

This was a busy butterfly – visiting 5 flowerets in less than a minute!

The butterfly seems to be in constant motion….feeding quickly on the rich source of nectar it found. I don’t think it rolled up its proboscis between flowers.

It will rest later with its wings open…displaying their deep iridescent blue at the bottom and black at the top.