Beautiful Butterfly

The coneflowers continue to attract new butterflies everyday. Today, this very regal swallowtail came to sip the sweet nectar. He wasn't shy, but did play hard to get with me for quite a while. As I would come close with my camera, he would vere away then fly upwards and next fly around the cabin hoping I would be gone by the time he returned to the flower bed. Finding me still there, but with the draw of the coneflower ever strong, he'd come in for another landing and flit from flower head to flowerhead and then repeat the whole cycle again.

After performing this routine several times, he must have come to the conclusion that I just wasn't going to leave and conceded with an "if you can't beat 'em join 'em" attitude, letting me get close enough for shot after shot. At one point he was so close to my camera that he bumped into it, but that still didn't deter him from going about his own business.

I love the striking pattern and vibrant colors of the swallowtail. In the second photograph, you can get a glimpse of the probocis (especially if you left click on the image to enlarge it for greater detail).

Butterfly Magnet

My coneflowers are in full bloom. These native flowers stand sturdy and tall. Despite the hot, dry summer we are experiencing, they are flourishing. Coneflowers are a particular favorite, and not just of mine. Butterflies almost magically appear when their showy blooms open. Yesterday, I witnessed at least four different varieties of butterfly alight upon the flower heads. Unless disturbed, the butterflies linger on and on, drawn by the flower pollen. On close inspection, you can see their long probocises probing the dense seed heads for the nourishing nectar which must be especially tasty to the butterflies. The sight of these brightly colored, delicate winged creatures inspired my latest attempt at a water color painting.

Still a work in progress, this painting shows an Aphrodite Fritillary butterfly sucking up the pollen from a large, pale pink petaled coneflower, seeking to get it's fill of the sweet, energy providing nectar. The pattern of this butterfly was so detailed and was a fun one to paint. I hope to "capture" some of the other kinds of butterflies that frequent the coneflowers and paint their portraits, too.