My Hiking Buddies

My Buddies Are Butterflies

As I hike my mountain road this summer, I am nearly always accompanied by my buddies, the butterflies.  Often they are passing by, over my shoulder as if a fellow hiker with someplace important to get to.  They seem to use the dirt road as their road.  These butterflies that float past me are often Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, or Spicebush Swallowtails calmly going about their business, calmly floating along.

The Nervous Ones

My butterfly buddies that I’m talking about today though, are the ones that seem nervous.  They don’t float on air as I pass by, but flit here and there, at ground level, nearly constantly in frenetic motion.

My Models This Morning

This morning I’ve photographed  a Hackberry Emperor, a Red Admiral, a Tawny Emperor and an Eastern Comma.  The Eastern Commas seem to have been plentiful during the whole summer, no matter what.  I noticed just recently that the Hackberry Emperors and the Tawny Emperors have become more plentiful than they had been and the Red Admiral is one that I only see from time to time.  I’ll be gathering up more butterflies in pixels, so long as they cooperate!