Virtua Gallery - A photographic Journal

Butterfly Season is in full swing - and so I went to Lake Louisa on Saturday for reconnaissance. Found some great spots - brought home some images, too. After having my Macro Lens finally fixed again it was of course a treat to go out - and so I did on Sunday Morning - bright and early I entered the State Park as soon as they opened the gates.

And I was basically alone - didn’t see anyone ’til about 11, when I was almost ready to go home. Checking the Hotspots I encountered on Sat - everything was just buzzing with Butterflies of all sorts - I must have seen hundreds. Whites, Swallowtail, Skippers and Fritillaries were all over the place. (Good for me….)

My count says 18 different Species, 19 if you count Caterpillars. Most of them were easy “prey” with no problems to get close. The most difficult species to shoot are the Sulphurs. They are extremely shy, never stay long at one spot - and when I talk long, I mean at least 3 or 4 seconds, which would be time enough to squeeze off some shots. Not only that makes them different. While they fluttered around the Common Beggar-Ticks Wildflowers, that worked liked a magnet on all others - they worked the underbrush, rarely touched the flowers, but seemed to be more interested in the leaves.
Especially hard to get was the Sleepy Orange. It took about two hours, until I got one and in flight of all things!
So - all in all I had a blast - as you can see below!

[Show as slideshow]

Zebra Swallowtail Mating.jpg

Northern Metalmark.jpg

Gull Fritillary 02.jpg

Variegated Fritillary.jpg

Zebra Swallowtail 02.jpg

Spicebush Swallowtail.jpg

White Peacock 06.jpg

Black Swallowtail 02.jpg

Zebra Heliconian.jpg

Gull Fritillary Backlight1.jpg

Zebra Swallowtail 01.jpg

Gull Fritillary Caterpillars.jpg

White Peacock 02.jpg

Black Swallowtail.jpg

White Peacock 03.jpg

Black Swallowtail 01.jpg

Longtailed Skipper 01.jpg

Black Swallowtail 04.jpg

White Peacock 05.jpg

Pearl Crescent.jpg

Pink-edged Sulphur.jpg

Giant Swallowtail 02.jpg

Zebra Heliconian 01.jpg

White Peacock 04.jpg

Longtailed Skipper.jpg

Queen.jpg

Gull Fritillary 03.jpg

Pink-edged Sulphur 02.jpg

Giant Swallowtail 01.jpg

Cloudless Sulphur.jpg

Gull Fritillary 01.jpg

Black Swallowtail 03.jpg

White Peacock 01.jpg

Ceranus Blue.jpg

Gull Fritillary Backlight.jpg

Monk Slipper.jpg

Sleepy Orange.jpg

Long Tailed Skipper 01.jpg

Long Tailed Skipper 02.jpg

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.jpg

Common Streaky-skipper 02.jpg

Gray Hairstreak.jpg

Black Swallowtail 05.jpg

theenvironment.jpg

Palamedes Swallowtail.jpg

Florida Duskywing.jpg

Common Beggar-Tick.jpg

Common Buckeye 01.jpg

Little Glassywing.jpg

Cloudless Sulphur01.jpg

Gull Fritillary 04.jpg

Pink-edged Sulphur Closeup.jpg