Painted Lady Butterfly on Rocky Mountain Bee Plant – Nikon D500, f6.3, 1/4000, ISO 640, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
I’ve been seeing other things with wings lately while out looking for birds to photograph and while birds are my main passion I try to pay attention to everything I see and photograph them when I can.
I’d forgotten about this Painted Lady butterfly I photographed in August of 2017 that I found while photographing hummingbirds on Antelope Island State Park. Although I was focused primarily on the birds I felt I had to take photos of the butterflies I saw nectaring on the pink wildflowers.
Rocky Mountain Bee Plants are native wildflowers that attract hummingbirds, bees, flies, wasps, ants, moths, and butterflies.
In the Western hemisphere Painted Lady butterflies can be found throughout much of the continental U.S., southern parts of Canada, Mexico, Central America, the Caribbean, and in some locations in northern South America in open or disturbed areas. They are also known as Thistle Butterflies because of the caterpillars’ food preference and also as the Cosmopolitan because it is the most widely distributed butterfly in the world.
I’ve only seen one Painted Lady butterfly so far this year but to be fair I haven’t been getting out as much as I typically do this spring because of the coronavirus and crazy spring weather. I am keeping an eye out for them though.
Life is good. Stay safe.
Mia
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Beautiful! I like how only the corner with the butterfly is clear.
Lovely, lovely, lovely.
Had many of these beautiful flying art pieces in Maine…wonderful capture…I miss them…
Stunning. And a wonderful capture. I find their erratic movements hard to track – and they rarely stay perched for long.
Gorgeous