Last month, I published a post on the butterfly exhibit at Brookside Gardens in Maryland but now I'm pleased to say I have photos of some butterflies in my own garden. In recent years, I've bemoaned the relative dearth of butterflies here but I've noticed a definite uptick in these winged visitors in the past month. Whether the population increase is attributable to our wetter-than-normal winter, or additions to my ever-growing collection of plants, they are most certainly welcome.
For today's Wednesday Vignette, a feature hosted by Anna at Flutter & Hum, I'm sharing a few of the photos I've captured over the past couple of weeks.
This is a Marine Blue (Leptotes marina), identified by a few people after I posted an earlier photo. It's very tiny and almost impossible to photograph with its wings open but you can find one photo of it with open wings showing its blue color here. In my garden, Cuphea 'Starfire Pink' is its favorite haunt but I caught it here on Hebe 'Wiri Blush'.
There are 2 Fiery Skippers (Hylephila phyleus) on this Zinnia. I believe the one in the rear is a male attempting to mate. He followed the skipper in front every time she moved from one flower to another.
I collected a number of photos of West Coast Lady butterflies but most had their wings at least partially closed and many of those wings were tattered. This one allowed me to get a photograph of her (his?) intact wings fully open.
