Painted Lady

While I was trying to play something that was almost, but not quite, completely unlike golf last Friday, I could hardly help but notice the large numbers of monarch and painted lady butterflies that were flitting about the fairways. Lovely conditions for butterfly hunting this morning, so I took off for Belle Isle, hoping for more of the same. I was not disappointed - I often complain about the sterility of our local nature reserve, but not today. It was bouncing with butterflies, and I had a lovely time photographing them.

As well as the monarchs and painted ladies, there were some buckeyes and a nice black swallowtail that took off into the wild blue yonder when I clumsily disturbed it.

Although the painted lady is one of our common species (although numbers fluctuate drastically from year to year), I've never got a decent shot of one before, so I was quite pleased to be able to cross it off the list, so to speak.