Flower Gardens Aren't Just For Flowers

Since our return from the  Greater Yellowstone Eco-
system finding wildlife to photograph has been difficult.  After visiting the flower garden of a friend I realized that I had been overlooking the obvious...

Pollinators are plentiful and varied.  Here is a Cloudless Sulphur...

The sheer numbers can be overwhelming at times.  Next is a Great Spangled Fritillary...

I am by no means an expert at butterfly identification so any, or all, of these images may be misidentified, but I tried my best to get them right.  Next is another Cloudless Sulphur...

The Zebra Swallowtail is strikingly beautiful...

The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is one of our most common species...

There are many smaller butterflies such s these Skippers...

Here are some Skippers that I will attempt to identify.  First a Little Glassywing...

A Cobweb Skipper...

Fiery Skippers...

Dun Skipper...

Northern Broken-dash Skipper...

Black Dash Skipper...

Pecks Skipper...

Of course, butterflies aren't the only things attracted to flower gardens.  It was interesting to watch Goldfinches carefully pick the petals from Zinnias...

The Goldfinches were interested in other flowers, too...

The adorable fledglings were eager for a feeding of flower seeds...

Neither a butterfly or a bird, the Clear-winged Hummingbird Moth was an occasional visitor...

There were a few visits from actual Hummingbirds...

And now, just when you thought we had reached the end of the images, there are a few more.  Some unidentified Skippers...

There were visits from the well known Monarch Butterflies...

I almost forgot this Hackberry Emperor...

Finally, no really, there were the Black Swallowtails...

A Spicebush Swallowtail...

A Slender Meadow Katydid...

Thanks for sticking with me through this longer than normal blog post.  Be well, and come back soon.