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I’ve been waiting almost patiently all summer to take a photo like this one. You see, I’ve noticed that I’ve had a lot of butterflies in my garden this year. Oh, I’ve always had butterflies and moths flying around, but this year there have been so many more. Monarch butterflies have been a rare site too, but again, this year I’ve seen at least one or two monarchs visiting my garden on a daily basis.
The trouble was that every time I went outside with my camera the darn Monarchs seemed to know that I was trying to focus my attention on them and they’d flit away in the breeze. As soon as I’d go back inside they’d come back for a visit. I’ve been starting to think that these creatures might be more intelligent than I thought they were.
Finally, on Thursday, one stuck around the garden long enough for me to zoom in and take a number of pictures. I had wanted to take some close up photos for several reasons. The number one reason being I knew it would make for a nice photo since Monarchs are such nice looking butterflies. The second major reason was that I wanted to make sure that it was indeed a Monarch. You see, there is another butterfly that looks very similar to the Monarch and that is the Viceroy butterfly. Viceroy’s have horizontal dark lines on their lower wings, and Monarchs don’t – that is the one major way to tell the difference. Now I know for sure that I have definitely had Monarchs visiting my milkweed (2 types), bee balm, phlox, and hibiscus (3 types).
Now if I can only get humming birds to visit my garden I’ll be a happy camper.
Beautiful monarch! And interesting info on the differences between them. I don’t recall that I’ve seen any of them in real life actually, so for me it’s extra interesting.
I couldn’t help smiling when you wrote that they disappeared every time you got the camera out 🙂
How very typical! I don’t know how many times I’ve been experiencing the same thing.
Thanks for being so patient so we finally got to see a shot 😉
Great shot Tricia. I went out this week and spent a good hour around the butterfly bush so the butterflys would settle and got some nice shots of my swallowtails. Your monarch is just beautiful. Thanks for the lesson on telling them apart. In Florida we had both and it was always so confusing which was which. Actually pretty simple to tell! Your shot is just awesome. Mine greenery is all posted. Have a great day!
Beautiful shot, Tricia! I don’t know enough about butterflies other than to oooh and awww over them so thanks for the good information!
I love butterflies and hummingbirds. If you really want to see some cool pics of hummingbirds, you should check out Leanne’s blog. She is best known for being the founder of Thursday Thirteen. http://intricateart.com/blog
BlogMad hit! Fluttering away, now. 🙂
And now, I am voting for you! Hope you are feeling better.
Oh this is lovely.
My granfather was a T.O. entimologist.
He would have loved that pic!
The Monarch was always his favorite!
Wow – great shot! I’m really enjoying the GTS posts — i’m learning so much. Sure hope you can get that humming bird shot.. that would be amazing.
Very well-taken picture. What camera were you using?
I see butterflies every now and then but not often enough…could be due to a lack of flowers lol They are very pretty though. Excellent pic
Whoda thought monarch butterflies were camera shy?
Blogmad hit!
I too have noticed more butterflies in my area. The Monarches are a daily visitor, as are Painted Lady, and Sulfur Wing. Earlier this summer I also saw a couple Tigerswallowtail…I have only seen them one other thime and that was when we released one and it stuck around for a few days