[Image]I saw a beautiful swallowtail on our golden currant bush and couldn't resist snapping a few photos.
[Image]They came out well enough that I realized I would be able to identify the butterfly. A couple years ago I wanted to learn all the butterflies in the area, but once I learned there were more than a hundred species, I felt a bit overwhelmed and didn't learn much. Now I'm ready to try again.
[Image]When I came in the house, I went on the internet to my favorite butterflies website. One of the neatest things about the website is that it has a list of butterflies and moths by county, so that quickly narrows down what you see. I found that there were about six different swallowtails, and by checking out the photos, I learned that this one is a Two-tailed Swallowtail (Papilio multicaudata). In the photo above you can clearly see the secondary protrusion on the tail, along with the pretty blue and orange coloring near the tail.
[Image]The two-tailed swallowtail uses nectar from a variety of plants and is fairly common in western North America. I really enjoyed watching it get that nectar--the butterfly balanced delicately as it sipped the nectar, then swooped to the next flower.
One down, quite a few more to go...