Longtime followers likely recall that I spend part of my summers at a family cabin in Colorado’s Front Range. When I arrived this year, I hit the peak blooming of the local choke cherries, making the butterflies quite happy! Here’s a sampling of what I’m seeing–only a sample, because some won’t sit still!
Tiger Swallowtails sipping minerals from wet soil.
A ‘lighter tiger swallowtail’ that I’ve noticed for the first time is a western species called Pale Swallowtail. I finally caught two feeding on lilacs and frolicking–possibly mating?–across the meadow.
Either a comma or question mark butterfly, it didn’t sit still enough to tell.
A rather ragged Mourning Cloak.
A hairstreak that I can’t identify.
I have just started submitting my sightings to Butterflies and Moths of North America, a site collecting and sharing data on Lepidoptera. The site welcomes anyone to submit photographs, and will verify your identification, so I hope to get names for my unidentified species.
On the writing front, I have a YA novel’s edited draft out for critiques, and am trying to keep up with putting in the edits as I do cabin chores.
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