Awesome and Abundant August Swallowtails!

 

After 3-4 years of planting butterfly-friendly plantings and shrubs, now we really get to enjoy some of natures prettiest creatures. Above, the pale yellow and black Tiger swallowtails are numerous. This one almost blends in with the pale yellow zinnias and greenery. Tiger swallowtails are pretty calm creatures. If uninterrupted they'll just stay at each blossom until they're full. Remember, every photo here at casey/artandcolour are clickable thumbnails. They enlarge nicely!

This variety is, I think, the Spicebush Swallowtail. On this sunny day, the bright orange color of the zinnia reflects off the bottom of its wings, highlighting the unique coloring of this butterfly.

Just a slash of a wing, here.

As this Spicebush ascends, its top wings flap first, creating this blurry effect. Then the bottom wing joins in and it flies to another flower. Then it flies back to the original flower. Then back to the second and then a third. This variety flits from one to another and back again rather than staying put on each flower like the Tiger swallowtails do.

Literally, this Tiger is just hanging around June's Butterfly bush. Imagine that!

This view really shows the unique wing structure and coloring of this swallowtail.

This Spicebush has its complete wing structure. Many of them in the yard are more ragged and missing one or both of the "swallowtails" at the bottom right in this photo.

Glistening in the sun with newly-collected pollen, this butterfly shines like it's Team Edward in the popular Twilight movie series, lol.

You can really see how "dusty" the wings look here. That's all excess pollen from the multitudes of flowers they attend to in the yard.

Although it's almost completely blurry, I love this image. The colors alone would make it interesting, but it's also how these creatures appear in person. They rapidly fly from one blossom to another.

A perfect photo of the beautiful blue sections of the Spicebush's coloring. Orange and blue are always a perfect combination, anyway.