FLIES - (dragon and butter that is)

The pictures are making their annual transition from flora to fauna as the Spring and early Summer bloomers have invited in the flies. The butterflies, and a dragonfly earlier this week.

The butterfly bushes have been blooming for a couple weeks now, and the phlox and lilac have been blooming for ahwile. The lilac is over now, but we had some nice blossoms considering it was just planted last year and had to winter over one of the coldest winters in years.

The first butterfly I saw (and got pictures of) was a cabbage butterfly.  I thought it was a moth at first, but after posting pictures I was told that it's a cabbage butterfly. I love my friends who can help me learn more about what's happening in my backyard.

Here are some pictures of a cabbage butterfly.

On one of the butterfly bushes up against the back fence.

I love the colors of the butterfly bush,
but I have to be almost on top of it to see the blossoms and colors.

This has a lot going on for a "simple" picture.  The depth of field
 (the out of focus elements framing the center)
 and the parallels between the spots on the wing and the leaf make me really like this shot.
I wish I could claim credit for having planned it all, but I still appreciate it.

I was also able to get some pictures of a dragonfly as it stopped to rest on one of the statues in the garden. I really like how delicate the wings are - you can see the texturing of the statue even through the darker sections of the wings.

He's resting on the back of a dog's head (statue) - I hope he doesn't get any ideas to start riding around on any of the fur babies. I don't know how they would react.

A day or two later I saw my first tiger swallowtail of the summer. It was hanging around the phlox before moving over to the butterfly bushes. I got a picture at the butterfly bushes, but it wasn't as nice as these ones at the phlox.  The colors really pop in contrast between the fushia and the yellow.

And I also got pictures of some smaller butterflies - I have not researched the exact variety yet.  But I don't recall seeing these last year. So I'll have to do some googling to see If I can identify them.

Since there are two of them there, I'm hoping there will be more coming.