Friends Among The Flowers

It was a cold, sunny, breezy day, today, but look what was hanging around our yard! Unfortunately, patchy frost is forcasted for this evening and tomorrow morning.Tiger Swallowtail

Spring Azure

Sulphur, mid flight

Copper

Moth

Can't wait to see what else blows through our yard, this summer!!! --LKR

Blue Morning, Orange Afternoon

We had a ton of rain yesterday with very gusty winds, so this morning, I was totally thrilled to not only see a clear blue sky, but a beautiful Spring Azure playfully flitting around and about my feet!

Later, while planting bushes, a small, fast flying orange and black butterfly whizzed past me. Was it an American Painted Lady or one of the overwintering anglewings like a Question Mark or Comma? After seven months without a butterfly sighting, it's easy to forget the different species flight patterns which help identify them while they're fluttering about!

Earlier, I had checked our Pearly Everlasting, host plants for the American Painted Lady, for eggs after noticing one of our neighbor's low growing patch of plants blooming. Sometimes, eggs and larvae are easier to spot than an adult butterfly flying around!

Shortly before dinner, a Cabbage White descended upon our "field" of dandelions in search for the perfect golden flower to nectar and refuel at. Very soon, lilacs will be blooming, beaconing other butterflies like the Red Admiral, Eastern Black Swallowtails, and Tiger Swallowtails.

It's hard to believe we were having snow flurries six days ago!!! Spring is finally here!!! --LKR

Monarchs

At 2:00pm, a Monarch flew in front of our lilac bushes as I was scanning for an elusive Tiger Swallowtail to photograph. This male Monarch was pristine, flying fast though the rather breezy afternoon under partly cloudy skies. Reported this to Journey North.

Just in case..., I checked for eggs on our common milkweed plants. (I check almost every day.) None--yet! --LKR