Saturday, September 15, 2012

Tiger Swallowtail…….. a “ragged beauty”

One of my favorites. It is such a large butterfly and sometimes very easy to photograph since they don’t flap their wings a lot. Today wasn’t the best day…it was windy. So, even though the butterfly stayed still…the bush didn’t.

This Tiger Swallowtail was concentrating on the Hairy Beggar Tick plant. It grows all over the outer edges of our spot here in the woods. 3’ to 4’ tall and looks like little daisies.

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The plant is a weed so it fits right in here…that’s about all we have since I don’t use weed killer or pesticides.

I love the huge eyes and the fat fuzzy body.

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This one hung around for quite awhile…then was gone.

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One of the host plants for the Tiger Swallowtail is a Red Maple. We have several in the woods and a sapling we planted in the wetlands with the Needle Palms and the Cana Lilies.

Perhaps with all the Beggar Ticks blooming, it will be back.

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2 comments:

  1. It looks like it was attack by a bird. I have seen some of them picked off by sapsuckers or flycatchers. Great captures.

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  2. Lovely! We get the Tiger Swallowtails here, but for some reason I didn't see too many of them this summer.

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