I love butterflies, Monarchs, skippers, checkers, blues, sulphers ... and White Admirals. Monarchs get all the press these days and I really think butterfly awareness is a good thing. Their caterpillars are cute. Their chrysalis is decorated with gold. Their orange and black pattern is bold and eye-catching. Their migration is miraculous.
White Admirals on the other hand have a caterpillar that looks like bird droppings. I have never in fact seen one because their caterpillars feed on trees like willow, poplar, and hawthorn. I often see several White Admirals on Ed's Summersweet. They quickly flit away when approached. Usually I get a picture of white flowers and no butterfly. This time though, one of the butterflies stayed. I was delighted! How about this unusual shot of the underside of the butterfly? I could have cropped out that upside-down garbage can I suppose but it went so nicely with the upside-down butterfly.
I carefully moved in closer and snapped another picture. Amazingly the butterfly stayed put. You can actually see it sipping nectar through its proboscis!
A picture of a White Admiral with its wings wide open was more than I thought possible. I began to wonder if there was some reason why the butterfly could not fly.
However, just when I had taken this photo Ed approached. When I spoke to him the White Admiral flew away and was quickly out of sight. I don't have the patience to chase after butterflies with the camera, but this time I got very lucky.
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