I'm seeing spots...

Well, actually, Baltimore Checkerspot butterflies to be precise.  I was out with my naturalist group today and we spent about 4 hours along a stretch of the Appalachian trail where it was all about the butterflies!  This is the only place I've ever seen this particular species of butterfly and they have a fairly short flight season from June-July.  They are only found in the northwest part of NJ and in limited habitat.  All a long way of saying that they are a way-cool species to see!

This wasn't my best photo of the day technically, and I had to crop it pretty severely, but I like that you can see the two of them interacting.  We couldn't determine if they were "courting" or just vying for position on the nectar source.  

I took over 300 pictures, but have deleted most and kept a handful that are good enough.  I posted five shots on Flickr starting here with two cozy bees - included is a better (technically) shot of one of the checkerspots.  

When I got home, the yard was a-buzz.  Hummies everywhere, a downy woodpecker feeding a fledgling on the clothesline, a juvenile cowbird looking a bit lost, catbirds furtively taking food into the shrubs to feed babies, Papa swallow guarding the nest box, Papa Wren doing important wren things, and titmice feeding babies.  I'm going to have to try to get some shots of the nursery tomorrow, I think.

And, since I am still battling (not very hard) Hummie-fever, I also took a few shots of them - I posted my favorite right HERE - this would have been my blip today if I'd not seen those checkerspots.  I'll have the rest of the summer with the hummers but I may not see another checkerspot until next year.  

Thanks for the comments on my mono hummie yesterday.  As most of you know, I'm not all that comfortable doing things in mono, so your positive comments were particularly appreciated.  It is nice to have a place like this to experiment and take photographic "risks".

I'm pooped, so Hubs is bringing home something for dinner.  Then, a shower and early bed.  

TTFN,
Deb