So many beautiful wildflowers are blooming right now. They are attracting all kinds of birds, butterflies, and bees. I’m very happy with a few of the photos I took yesterday as I was walking along the river.
I caught these two Silver-Spotted Skippers in the perfect pose. I was shooting with my aperture wide open, which can often result in one butterfly being out of focus. However, these two were lined up in the same focal plane and I got them both. It really made my day.
This pretty Song Sparrow was also kind enough to give me a perfect pose. I love how he’s a bit backlit in this photo.
I usually like my bird photos to have a natural background. But when I saw this Mourning Dove sitting on the railroad tracks, I had to take the shot. I love the background of this photo–the colors are fantastic and I love that you can make out the tire but it’s still got a good amount of blur. I think I’ll go back to this spot and see if I can get a few portraits with that background. And no worries, I won’t sit my kids on the railroad tracks for the sake of a photo!
I believe this butterfly is a Holly Blue. It’s tiny and has a beautiful blue upper side. I’ve never seen it land and keep it’s wings open, so I often only see the white under side. I love how you can just make out the strip of blue near the head of the butterfly.
I believe the butterfly above is called an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail. I took so many photos of this guy. I loved the way the light shone through the wings on this one.
So very happy I got out for an hour or so yesterday. It’s raining out right now–probably won’t be many photo opportunities today.
Hope you had a wonderful weekend.
One Picture at a Time 
I heartily agree with your title! The heat usually keeps me indoors, but we’ve been so temperate this summer. We seem to be surrounded by monoculture (corn and beans), but looking closely in the ditches there is so much life! 🙂
That bottom flower is so interesting that I had to learn what it is. Fuller’s Teasel – Dipsacus sativus. It is not native, but I do not complain if I see our butterflies making good use of them.
One site that has helped me ID flowers is http://uswildflowers.com/ You can narrow down by state and then color.
Thanks so much for the info–I need to bookmark that site!
Great photos, and I like the last one the most. You are an amazing photographer!
Thank you so much!
Hi Carol,
I haven’t been to your blog for a while, so I am really enjoying all of your wonderful photos 🙂 Your Skipper shot is amazing – like you say, getting them aligned in the same plane both at once – wow! Regarding the blue butterfly, I believe it is a Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) and it is really hard to catch them with there beautiful blue wings open. Your Tiger Swallowtail is lovely also and the plant it is on is called Teasel. It has an interesting history in that it was brought over from Europe in the early 1800’s to be used in the cloth industry. The spiny heads were put together to form a natural comb that was pulled across wool cloth to raise the knap. (Here’s a drawing of this process) http://primitiverug.com/wp-content/uploads/2011/10/Fullers-Teasels.jpg Teasels are also a favorite of folks who like to do dried flower arrangements.
Thank you so much for helping with the butterfly id’s! Those Azures confuse me! I love the Teasel. I can see why people use it in dried flower arrangements–it’s beautiful to photograph in the fall.
I love your blue butterfly, seems the butterflies have been less here this year, I don’t know if its connected with the long winter.