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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-11-2010, 08:07 AM
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You're welcome. Actually, this is the first good year for butterflies in about three years here in central PA, because of the gypsy moth problem back then. The extensive spraying seems to have done in the gypsy moths but also wiped out many butterflies.
My first introduction to red admirals was about seven years ago (when I was living on Long Island). As I drove up to my home, there were about thirty or forty red admirals on the bushes out front. By the time I got in and grabbed camera and lens, there was only one left. Back then it took me about two or three years to identify it.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-11-2010, 06:47 AM
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Beautiful collection. (And yet another reason why I'd like to visit Australia.)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-11-2010, 06:44 AM
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From post 30: It's an underwing view of a red admiral (I've an overwing view in post 12), and you've captured more of the pattern than usually seen. Here's another closed wing view.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-10-2010, 11:33 AM
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And here are two images of a black swallowtail (a male), taken with my *1st D and the 1000/f11. (I generally go walking/hiking with two cameras, one with a telephoto lens and one a macro.)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-10-2010, 10:28 AM
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With the row of dots along the back of the hindwing, as well as the touch of orange, my guess would be a female spicebush swallowtail. The pipevine's dots are almost invisible.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-08-2010, 05:00 PM
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There are so many beautiful photos here, but then I love butterfly photos.
That said, here is a somewhat plain (though elegant) skipper, with some birdsfoot trefoil blossoms (or some kind of trefoil) to brighten the mood. (I forget which macro lens I used.)
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-08-2010, 11:26 AM
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According to Butterflies through Binoculars, brushfoots are a family that includes everything from fritillaries to monarchs; however, also according to the book, some consider monarchs a separate family.
Also: "Called brushfoots because of the greatly reduced male forelegs." I don't know whether fuzzy legs enter into it.
I find the hairy antenna to be the easiest distinction between moths and butterflies (but not always valid).
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-08-2010, 10:14 AM
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My favorite field guide for identifying butterflies is Butterflies through Binoculars: The East, by Jeffrey Glassberg.
And here are a two local butterflies and a moth.
The first is a red admiral, for which we've had a fair number this spring (K20D with the DA 55-300mm).
The second is a hummingbird moth (with translucent wings), a fair-size moth that acts like a hummingbird (fast wingbeat, hover stationary, and sipping nectar) and taken with the *1st D with the A* 200mm macro lens)
The third photo is a tiny butterfly, a gray hairstreak (about the size of a US nickle). I didn't know about the orange "eyes" until I looked at the photo, also taken with the *1st D and the 200mm macro.
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Forum: Mini-Challenges, Games, and Photo Stories
07-08-2010, 10:02 AM
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It's a mourning cloak. Around here, in central Pennsylvania, they're among the earliest butterflies one sees in the spring (having overwintered in a crevice, generally).
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