Yawn! Not much going on yesterday! So I walked out into the garden and snapped some butterfly photos. None new, but I like this shot of the Brown Longtail and equally the Cloudless Sulphur shot, which is found from Canada to South America by the way! 🙂 No usable shots of the many Giant Whites I saw but I included a shot of an injured or damaged Polydamas Swallowtail, since broken wings seem common among most butterflies. Life can be harsh, even for a butterfly! 🙂
My favorite time in my house is during breakfast on my terrace when I usually have many visitors and sometimes try to photograph them, whether bird, butterfly or other creature. This morning I managed to grab shots of 4 after trying and failing to get shots of two tiny orange & black butterflies that flew as a pair and never lighted on a flower for me. Shooting them in flight is very difficult and I failed. Both these butterflies and birds are regular repeats for me, but each one is a unique individual! 🙂
And 4 species today! 🙂 I went out and photographed the above flowers for a one-shot post when I realized there was a dozen or so butterflies beyond them on my Porterweed flowers of these 4 species (one I incorrectly named the other day}:
Cloudless Sulphur
Statira Sulphur
Polydamas Swallowtail, I mistakenly called a Red-sided Swallowtail recently. Sorry!
Cloudywing Butterfly (not sure which one of several Cloudywings)
These three butterflies are all frequent visitors to my garden and even inside my house, but when I photograph one I often try to double check the identity which is so difficult on butterflies, even with two books and a third one on order, plus some internet help.
Well, the featured photo today is one I have been calling a “White-striped Longtail” and after more research, I have determined that he and the others like him I’ve photographed here are actually “Brown Longtail” (link to their gallery).
Sorry for the incorrect identification earlier! The other two here today are still labeled the same and I’m confident correctly! 🙂 But you will see two shots here of the Polydamas Swallowtail because the top and bottom are so different. The same is true for Blomfild’s but I was unable to get a good top view today (wings closed most of time) – there are several top shots of him in my gallery
All of these were shot in my garden except the Blomfild’s Beauty on my kitchen window before I opened it to let him out. 🙂
Butterflies are fun to study and observe (photograph) and are one of the most colorful creatures of Costa Rica. With 1500 different species of Butterfly and 12 000 different species of moths, the numbers are staggering! I will never finish photographing them! 🙂 Possibly the best “butterfly garden” to visit in Costa Rica is Butterfly Conservatory near Arenal which I hope to see when I’m at Arenal Observatory Lodge in November, though not the high month for butterflies! 🙂 In Atenas we have more butterflies in June-July-August.
See my newly revised Butterflies of Costa RicaPHOTO GALLERY that is better organized for your viewing pleasure! 🙂 Easier to find a specific butterfly but if using it to identify your Costa Rica butterfly photos, the sub gallery for each species usually gives you multiple images to compare! Though prejudiced, I think I have the best Costa Rica butterfly photo gallery online now! 🙂 80+ species! Check it out!
I also have a little 7X7 inch photo book titled My First 50 Butterflies in Costa Rica. You can preview all pages electronically for free at this link. Best viewed full screen for bigger photos.
Beautiful and graceful, varied and enchanting, small but approachable, butterflies lead you to the sunny side of life. And everyone deserves a little sunshine.
Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly
My Garden in Roca Verde, Atenas, Costa Rica
Well, the butterflies are starting to come! And this is the first other than the Banded Peacock which was the only one to stay all summer (Your northern winters are our windy summers.). You may remember that I posted photos of this Polydamas Swallowtail Last June – not the most colorful but a butterfly!
I also hope to increase my photo gallery Costa Rica Butterflies this year where I now have 36+ species with a variety of Skippers, which I have already seen some of this year. As I remember last year, June and July were the peak months, but my garden didn’t get going good until into June, so a head start this year! 🙂 And truthfully, it has been too windy for butterflies since mid-December, but the wind will slow down and stop by April. Plus I’m going to the Monteverde Butterfly Garden next week which may give me some new ones, I hope! Though so far most of these butterfly gardens tend to have about the same butterflies.
“Well, I must endure the presence of a few caterpillars if I wish to become acquainted with the butterflies.” ― Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, The Little Prince (One of my favorite little books!)
Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
Polydamas Swallowtail, Atenas, Costa Rica
Polydamas Swallowtail Butterfly, Atenas, Costa Rica
My garden is so much fun! And beautiful! When I run out of new things to photograph in it I guess I’ll start traveling more. 🙂 And by the way, I’ve been photographing butterflies here since 2009. Check out some of the others in my Butterflies of Costa Rica photo gallery. And if you enjoy other interesting insects, I have aInsects of Costa Rica gallery also. And you wondered, “What in the world do you do every day way down there in Costa Rica? 🙂
And my new butterfly book arrived today at Aerocasillas from Amazon.com.
“Butterflies are self propelled flowers.”
― Robert A. Heinlein
