Certainly looks like a spring azure and a red-spotted purple to me, Terry.
That's a fantastic picture of the azure. I've only gotten one or two decent pictures of them in the past ten years. As soon as I approach them with the camera, get anywhere near them, they flit off. So congrats!
Sherry

I absolutely *love* the very first one! It's gorgeous, I just love the grey. :)

~Tina Marie

Thanks Sherry! They certainly do flit! I've been trying to get a photo since spring, but they keep darting in and out of shrubs or the perennials, so it's impossible! This one must have have tired..lol. I would love to be so lucky to get a photo with its wings open...that would be so nice!

Thanks Tina Marie! (my email is acting hinky today, yours and mine just now came in!) As I was taking the photos, s/he was turning all about, s/he looked white, then s/he looked blue, then s/he look gray....it was really odd, yet really cool!

Oy At least you got one snap that came out huh? LoL I was outside trying to snap a shot of a lime green colored butterfly and the little devil would *not* hold still for even a second! I'd get not even close enough to lean in and snap a half decent shot and Flit! Gone! Argh! So I'd follow...wait for it to land...step, go to lean with the camera, before I even got my eye to the darn camera... Flit! Gone again! Argh! I did that for nearly 20 min! LOL Finally I said Alright, I am done! Haha! Maybe after I water the garden this evening when the sun goes below the horizon but there is still some light I'll catch a picture of *something* out there.
What? who knows...

So, that means I have to keep oogling everyone elses pictures for now. Haha!

~Tina Marie

Oh geez, that seems to happen with almost all butterflies out there! I had a Tiger Swallowtail this morning...and just as I had it in my eye site (not even on the screen of the camera), off it went, get it again, off it went...I tried for about 10 minutes. I did get a few pictures, haven't uploaded them yet, so I might not really have any! We watered last night and it didn't help with any activity :(

Terry

Pretty picture, Terry! I'm planting a bed of New Jersey tea bushes in the hopes that I can eventually get the azures here and they'll lay eggs. I haven't seen any yet.

I have a suggestion for you and Tina. Rather than going to the butterfly to take a pic, let them come to you. It might take awhile, but you'll have a better chance of snapping a shot of them if you stand in one spot in the general vicinity where you see them nectaring. Just pretend you're a statue. ;-) I get better results with taking pictures that way than if I follow them around the yard. That just gets too frustrating. I just took some pics today but goodness only knows how long it will take to get them on the computer.

The butterfly activity has really picked up here in the last couple of days. It took awhile, but they're here now. Yay! Some years there are a lot and other years not so many. I guess they're finicky. Ha.

Cathy

Thanks Cathy! I have new jersey tea out front. I see they also like dogwood and viburnum, which I have too. Hmmm...that's usually what they're weaving in and out of, all my viburnums.

If you saw how little, think tiny, our backyard is, you'd know that I'm not walking that much at all! lol :)

So many butterflies really like Silphium perfoliatum (cupplant)! I took this last evening and we watched another Tiger Swallowtail this morning on a volunteer plant (from our yard) just over the fence in the neighbors (she wants our yard :)). When the cupplant goes to seed, the finches especially just love them.

{{gwi:509945}}

Cathy, My yard is barren pretty much. LoL I have a couple lantana planted. I had to do a total burn down of the lawn. It was over ran by broadleaf, invasive thistles, bindweed and gods above knows what else. We were gone for almost a year. When we moved in here it was pretty bad to begin with. (A foreclosure property.) Anyway...Starting over completely!

I just wanted desperately to try and snap a picture or three...Ah well! Next year! :) I'll have things coming up! I have dill, fennel, lantana, tropical milkweed just to name a couple of things. I'm going to try my hardest to draw them to me instead of me following them! I surely felt silly wandering around 1/4th of an acre trying to catch an image of them. I'm sure you all can picture that! *g* yeah, yeah... laugh along with me, because I am giggling about it. I know how silly it had to have looked! Anyway, for now...I'll just keep oogling everyone elses photos!

~Tina Marie

I love that cup plant, and so, apparently, does the tiger!
I'll have to look up Silphium perfoliatum....
Sherry

Tina Marie, you'll get your yard to your liking...and the butterflies (and other critters) liking too!

Sherry, even I love that cupplant! It gets it name for the way each leaf is attached to the stalk. It forms a "cup"..and that cup holds water. The leaves are huge. It does reseed (birds don't get them all), but seedlings are easy enough to pull or dig up.