Skipper on clover

 

Sipping on clover, over and over

 

A skipper butterfly pauses on a clover flower for a refreshing sip of nectar. 

Who's eating me (parts 1 and 2)

The common milkweed is a host plant for the monarch butterfly caterpillar.   Other insects feed on it as well - and they can devour the leaves and eat the seeds.

Small Milkweed Bug (Lygaeus kalmii)

A Small Milkweed bug sitting on a milkweed seed pod.  These bugs eat milkweed seeds.

 

 

Milkweed Tussock Moth Caterpillar (Euchaetes egle)

Milkweed Tussock Moth caterpillars are eating this milkweed leaf; what's left of a devoured one is seen in the lower right corner.

 

 

Caterpillar and flower

 

That must have been a long crawl to get to a flower so tall.

 

 

What is that?

 

The flower - maybe an echinacea?  The caterpillar - maybe a skipper butterfly?

 

 

Feeding on flowers

If you can identify the flower and /or the caterpillar, post a comment.  This unexpected find was seen in a field of flowers in southern Quebec, near the middle of the Vermont border with Quebec.

 

 

Azure on a flower

 

Summer azure on a flower

Although it looks big in the photo, this summer azure (Celastrina neglecta) butterfly is very small; it has a wingspan of about one inch. 

 

 

Skipper on a leaf

A flighty butterfly that does not sit still long enough to be photographed does one and gets the other.

 

Zabulon skipper

This Poanes zabulon takes a break on a Rubus phoenicolasius leaf.

Poanes zabulon

This wineberry leaf provides a rest area for a zabulon skipper.

 

Brown eye butterfly

Common ringlet butterfly 

This Common Ringlet (Coenonympha tullia) butterfly was flitting through a meadow in northern Vermont, never staying on one flower for too long.  Eventually, it got close enough to capture lensatically this small brown butterfly with an "eye".  

Tiger in the flowers

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail on Phlox

As the sun sets, a male Papilio glaucus settles on the flowering Polemoniaceae for a late afternoon "pick me up".

Ready for my close-up

Five petal flower plant, mowed

The ground beneath our feet often has surprises.  The five petal flower plant was mowed down as part of the regular mowing schedule.  In the lower left corner, a skipper butterfly waits while the mowed area is documented.

Skipper butterfly

The skipper butterfly, patiently:  "Alright Skeetmotis, I'm ready for my close-up."