Butterflies Are Free

After I retired five years ago, I found myself with lots of free time that I was not used to having during my working years. In trying to find something to do to fill in the dead time, I found myself, among other things, watching the birds that came into our backyard and eventually became interested in bird watching and photographing them. However, after four years, unless I am traveling to other parts of the country or state, I seldom see a bird at my feeders that I haven't already observed or photographed at some point. That seems to be particularly true during the summer months, so lately, as a result, I've turned to butterfly watching which I have found to be just about as interesting, and, at this time of year, easy to do with the many varieties that have been coming to the flowers in our backyard and garden each Summer. I have found that some are difficult to photograph due to their propensity to seldom land on anything for more that a few seconds, if at all. Also making it more interesting is that outside of the Monarchs

and most of the Swallowtails that I can ID easily including the:
Giant Swallowtail,the largest of the Swallowtails,

and female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail which is often black rather than yellow like the male at the top of the blog,

I don't know the names of most of the varieties I see for the first time, so I find myself spending time on the internet where there are a plethora of sites with photos of butterflies that allow me to ID them, and learn something about their life cycles and range. Hopefully, this will keep me busy until Fall migration of the birds when I have a better chance of seeing a new bird or two on their way south to warmer climes. Here are some of the ones I have seen in the past year and was able to photgraph:

Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pagala), a very common butterfly seen throughout the summer months.

Silvery Checkerspot Butterfly (Chlosyne nycteis)

Questionmark Butterfly (Polygonias interrogationis)

White Peacock Butterfly (Anartia jatrophae) which I photographed on Grand Cayman Island this January, but also found in southern parts of Texas

Red Admiral Butterfly (Vanessa atalanta) not particularly common to this part of state

Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus), which is one of four butterflies, including Monarchs that lay their eggs on milkweed

and Gulf Fritillary butterfly (Agraulis vanillae)which I spotted for the first time today and get part of its name from being commonly seen over Gulf of Mexico during migration.

With a month long trip planned for Northern New Mexico coming up next month, I'm hoping I'll find a few new ones to add along with some birds that frequent the mountains and high desert that I have yet to see or photograph.