Rainy River butterflies

Butterflies really came out in numbers this past week so I spent some time one morning photographing some of them. I was really impressed with the diversity of fritillaries and along one road over about 45 minutes I observed Great Spangled, Atlantis, Silver-bordered, Meadow, and Variegated.

Great Spangled Fritillary

Silver-bordered Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary

Silver-bordered Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

Variegated Fritillary

Meadow Fritillary

Great Spangled Fritillary

There were more than just fritillaries out of course. While up north I saw quite a few Pink-edged Sulfur, a new species for me, though I never had my camera with me for those sightings. This is the similar Common Sulfur, a species we get in the south.

Common Sulfur

At one point I saw a butterfly which looked somewhat like a crescent in flight, except with a much more erratic flight style. I followed it for several minutes until it landed, revealing itself as a Harvester, another new species for me (kind of blew the photo though)

Harvester

This Northern Crescent landed just perfectly on a well lit flower. I kind of like the effect this photo has.

Northern Crescent

I picked up two new species of anglewings - Gray Comma and Hoary Comma.

Gray Comma

Gray Comma

At one point during the morning a doe and fawn walked right in front of me on the path. A common sighting in the Rainy River area, one that would happen several times a day!

White-tailed Deer

Among the more common species of skippers were European, Black Dash, and Tawny-edged (below).

Tawny-edged Skipper

And to close it off, one more photo of a Great Spangled Fritillary. I didn't see any really rare butterflies this time around but it was fun to spend some time photographing the common ones of the north, especially since so many of them were new for me.

Great Spangled Fritillary