Archival Butterflies

This week Carly wanted to see butterflies for the Ellipsis Monday Photo Shoot. If I were still working in Marana, I would have stopped off in Oro Valley on my way home and looked for some, but as it was, in this hot, monsoon-locked city, I knew the chances of finding any butterflies right now were slim to none.  So let's hit the archives!



In the summer of 2008 I had a temp job for three months in Oro Valley, Arizona, on a road that had a lot of fields and flowers. I spent quite a few lunchtimes trying to capture butterflies with my camera. I was never all that successful, but I did get a handful of good shots and some fairly decent ones. This was one of the better ones.


Here's another, in the fairly decent category I suppose. I'm pretty sure this was a pipevine swallowtail, although the light in this case makes it look more brown than black or iridescent blue.



And by the way, there's another insect I managed to photograph that summer. I have no idea what it is.
ETA: It's a Large Milkweed Bug, which is a "true bug" rather than a beetle. Apparently there's a lot of variation in the colors (red to light orange) and markings.

You can see more of my shots from that summer in my Picasa album Butterflies of Southern Arizona.



That was also the summer that my dog Tuffy died. On one of her last trips to the vet, I saw this butterfly just outside the vet's office entrance.

From Tucson Botanical Gardens

Last summer's afternoon at the Tucson Botanical Gardens was rather pleasant in many ways, but when it came to butterflies it did not live up to its advertising.

From Tucson Botanical Gardens

Aside from one shot of a real live butterfly, I had to settle for pictures of butterflies, such as the ones on these tiles.




This is a pipevine swallowtail (probably) that I sort of rescued from my bathroom window last August. Poor thing was much the worse for wear!

Karen