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On most days when I head out with my camera I’m chasing photos of birds. Occasionally I come back with a photo of a butterfly. That’s not my goal, but it’s nice when it happens. That’s the reason why nearly all of these butterfly photos were shot using my “bird set-up”: the Canon EF 600mm f/4L telephoto lens I carry when I'm shooting wildlife. If I run across a butterfly in an interesting setting while I'm shooting wildlife I'll go ahead and get the shot. It may seem odd shooting “macro" or close-up … Continue reading
Click on a photo to see a larger version
Tiger swallowtail butterfly on a thistle plant, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
Monarch butterfly on colorful flowers, Pinckney Island National Wildlife Refuge, Hilton Head, S.C.
A cabbage white butterfly feeds on flowers in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
An eastern comma butterfly rests on a leaf in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A red admiral butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
A tiger swallowtail butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
A monarch butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
A black swallowtail butterfly rests on a flower in Slate Run Metro Park, Canal Winchester, Ohio.
Silver-spotted skipper on wild teasel, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A gulf fritillary butterfly perches on a flower in Sea Pines Forest Preserve, Hilton Head Island, S.C.
A male tiger swallowtail feeds on teasel flowers in a field, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A monarch butterfly feeds on a flower, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
Female tiger swallowtail climbing a teasel plant, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A Clouded Yellow Butterfly blends with plants in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A red admiral butterfly rests in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
An eastern comma butterfly perches upside down in Prairie Oaks Metro Park, West Jefferson, Ohio.
A tiger swallowtail butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
A monarch butterfly feeds on a wild teasel plant in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A red admiral butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
Monarch butterfly on a yellow flower, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A spicebush swallowtail rests on a flower in Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
Male tiger swallowtail on teasel, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
A monarch butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
A tiger swallowtail butterfly feeds on a butterfly bush, Hilliard, Ohio.
Monarch butterfly probes a flower, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
Monarch butterfly on a sunflower, Sharon Woods Metro Park, Westerville, Ohio.
Monarch butterfly hanging on flower, Prairie Oaks Metro Park, West Jefferson, Ohio.
butterfly images from 15 feet away using a telephoto lens, but it works.
The butterfly I see most often on flowers and in the fields of Central Ohio during the summer months is the monarch. It is unique among butterflies, because it’s the only butterfly that migrates north and south, coming as far north as Canada each summer before returning to Mexico for the winter.
But the monarch’s life span is so short - usually no more than two months for butterflies born in early summer - that no one monarch makes the round-trip migration. Female monarchs deposit eggs during the migration, with the offspring completing the journey.
Another butterfly species I encounter often is the eastern tiger swallowtail, a large, usually yellow butterfly with an interesting background.
The eastern tiger swallowtail has a wingspan of up to 5.5 inches. By comparison, the monarch has a wingspan up to 4 inches.
It’s easy to tell a male eastern tiger swallowtail from a female. The females are dimorphic, with a yellow form that looks like the male but with a band of iridescent blue spots near the tail where the male has solid black near the tail. But there’s also a dark morph in females, with dark gray or black replacing the yellow on the wings. The dark females are more common in the southeastern U.S., although I do occasionally find them here in Central Ohio.
And here’s a fun fact I found when reviewing online information about the eastern tiger swallowtail: The first known drawing of a North American butterfly was of an eastern tiger swallowtail. It was drawn in 1587 by John White during Sir Walter Raleigh’s third Virginia expedition.
