South Cape May Meadows ~ Butterflies

Common Wood-nymph Butterfly

Pipevine Swallowtail Butterfly

Kill Devil Hills & Nags Head, Outer Banks, NC

This morning we went to the Wright Brothers National Memorial Park.  We arrived in time to hear the National Park Ranger talk about the development of the plane that brothers designed and then flew back in 1903.  It took them 4 years of experimentation and perseverance but their flight changed the world forever.  I found the talk very interesting along with the samples of their work.  Next we went to the Outer Banks Arboretum for a walk around their property.  Our next stop was at the Nags Head Woods Ecological Preserve where we walked 2 different trails.  The first trail we saw several Common Wood-Nymph butterflies and a numbers of toads and frogs.  The second trail featured a small butterfly garden filled with several species of swallowtails in addition to Pearl Crescent and Common Buckeye.  Along the trail we saw turtles sunning themselves on a log. This is a park that I would return to for a longer visit time premitting.

Common Wood-Nymph Butterfly

Pearl Crescent Butterfly

Spicebush Swallowtail Butterfly

Butterflies increasing

It's been a long summer with very few butterflies in the yard.  This is probably because it's been cool with frequent rain.  We are slowly seeing more species of butterflies but the numbers still continue to be low in each group.  Recent butterflies include 2 new yard species - Common Sooty Wing Skipper (picture courtesy W. Kerling)  & Common Wood-Nymph.  Other returning butterflies include Varigated Fritillary, Question Mark and Red Admiral.  We also are seeing more Monarchs, Cabbage White, Black Eastern Swallowtails.

Common Wood Nymph

Varigated Fritillary

We are finally seeing some of the butterflies nectar on the rotten fruit we have been putting out all summer.

Red Admiral

Question Mark

Nature at Cape May Point State Park

Common Wood-Nymph

My friends are down this weekend and since we couldn't really go kayaking we decided that we'd take a walk around the state park. Butterflies have been sparse on the home front so I was hoping to see some while on our walk.  I saw lots of Common Wood-Nymph, Cabbage White,  some Clouded Sulphurs and a Little Wood-Satyr. The dragonflies and damselflies were everywhere in large numbers as it really is their year.  There were also turtles and frogs sunning themselves along the paths.

Little Wood-Satyr

Cabbage White

Clouded Sulphur

Halloween Pennant

Mating Halloween Pennants

Eastern Painted Turtle

Wordless Wednesday - Butterflies @CMBO - Goshen

Spicebush Swallowtail

Common Wood-Nymph Butterfly

Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

Red-banded Hairstreak

Horace's Dustywing

Broad-winged Skipper