5/19/22

 While I was in Lawrence at the Baker University Wetlands, I was able to see and photograph a new butterfly I had not seen before.  This is a Zebra Swallowtail.  It was similar to a Tiger but it is more white, and almost had a greenish tint to it with the black stripes.  There were several of them around and they were quite neat to see.  

I have updated the Butterflies of Kansas Page here on the Blog with this new variety.

6/12/20

About a week ago while I was out walking late one afternoon I spotted this butterfly in among the Red Clover.  This is a male Tiger Swallowtail.  The Red Clover has been quite the butterfly magnet.  It made for some lovely background bokeh as well so sharing this today because Friday's Are Bokehlicious!

4/30/20

The first butterfly I was able to photograph this year was this Black Swallowtail.  I was only able to capture it in some grass and it was fairly boring so I decided to play around with it and this is the result.  

11/7/19

There were not many butterflies around this autumn.  Maybe they knew the early cold was coming and headed out faster than usual.  I stopped seeing larger ones in late September.  I still have to share some butterfly shots every now and then. This is an older image of a lovely Black Swallowtail visiting a Zinnia flower. 

9/20/19

Fridays Are Bokehlicious here on the Blog.  This Giant Swallowtail came to visit my Zinias a few weeks ago.  I only had a normal lens on but I was still able to get fairly close to it.  The sunlight made some lovey bokeh behind in the light patterns.  I love it when it has the round bubbly type bokeh.
Don't forget that I have a Page devoted to types of butterflies here on the Blog as well that is a helpful guide to ID ones you see.

7/30/19

I have now been starting to see lots more butterflies around.  It has mostly been smaller ones like Skippers and Painted ladies but over the weekend I saw several Swallowtails.  This is a male Black Swallowtail on the Budhelia or Butterfly bush.

5/3/19

We finally saw the sun for the first time in a few days on Thursday as I write this.  It still seems weird to write the day before.  It was quite lovely as it had been so dreary for several days.  As I was uploading today's image to share I realized that when the Lilacs bloom, my first large butterfly visitor has often been this one.  I have photos from several years of a beautiful male Tiger Swallowtail visiting them.  So a sure sign that Spring is here.It was very nice to see and get fairly close to this one.

9/14/18

I have been lucky to have several Swallowtails visiting my garden this past summer.  I have planted several varieties of things to entice butterflies to the garden.  I always find it funny that the thing they really seem to enjoy are the Zinnias, that's where I almost always seem to find them until the Sedum starts to bloom.  Here is a female Black Swallowtail enjoying one.

8/10/18

I have been quite lucky this summer that I have been able to see and capture Swallowtail Butterflies.  I have seen them mainly on the new land but also in my newer native plant garden.  I captured this male Tiger Swallowtail enjoying an Ironweed plant and found I had a bug bonus.  😁

5/18/18

On the new land there are a couple of Lilac bushes that are a bit different, smaller leaves and the blooms are smaller but more abundant and smell wonderful.  From what I can find, they may be a type that re-blooms throughout the growing season.  That would be wonderful.  I captured my second butterfly of the season enjoying them as well one evening.  This is a beautiful male Tiger Swallowtail.  

12/1/17

Yikes, it's December 1, only 24 days to Christmas and where has the year gone.  My image was taken on a summer day last year.  This is a Tiger Swallowtail enjoying the Butterfly or Buddleja Bush in my yard.

8/19/16

So I have been whining about not seeing any large butterflies this summer.  I finally had one that came to visit for a while.  This is a male Tiger Swallowtail that I captured in some afternoon sun on my Buddleja or Butterfly Bush.  I have since seen it flying through the yard but so far have not seen it stopping.  Ah well.  At least I got to capture some shots of it this day.

12/27/15

Winter is on it's way today.  We are looking at highs in only the 20F for the rest of the week.  I knew it was coming but not looking forward to it.  So, of course, I am dreaming of Spring.  This is an image of a Swallowtail Butterfly on my Lilac one spring.  I wish Lilacs lasted longer, they are great butterfly magnets and they smell so wonderful.  I believe this is a Black Swallowtail which are supposed to be the most numerous in Kansas.

6/11/15

So we got more rain last night, an inch!  Yay but I think we are probably good for a while now and we are in for more for the foreseeable future.  I wanted something bright today so I am sharing a female Black Swallowtail that i captured on the Butterfly Milkweed, the plant i mentioned in yesterday's photo.  This image was taken in that area.  I was happy to get good images of this butterfly because she was moving around quite a bit and really fluttering her wings.  The Black Swallowtail is supposed to be the most numerous in Kansas but I see more of the Tiger type so I found that interesting.