One Fine Day in the Garden

After the discovery of the Long Tailed Skipper eggs yesterday, we had no expectation that today could possibly top it, but indeed it did. It was a day of beauty and mystery, new visitors and ended with one of the stranger bits of butterfly behavior that we have ever experienced. I will tell you upfront that the latter tale will take a little while to tell, and I will only tease it tonight. Bear with me, it will be worth it, we hope. 

A gorgeous, perfectly formed Silvery Checkerspot couple came to the garden, a male and a female, and played among the Black-Eyed Susan and the Penta with a much smaller Pearl Crescent, the one on the right in the image below along with the other Checkerspot at left. . 

Our day began with this tandem theme in spectacular fashion. The first butterflies of the day were  the Tiger Swallowtail and the Diana together on the Butterfly Bush. 

These wonderful butterflies are always worth a closer look. 

The American Lady and the Long Tailed Skipper arrived as well, along with some other skippers, including as always, the Silver Spotted. 

Now here comes the tease. There is a butterfly, one individual butterfly, a  Red Admiral, probably male, that we only see in the evening, usually in the hour before sunset and all the way to sundown. He is fearless around us, and we can go right up to him as well. Today I just took out the big Nikon and strobe and got right in his face for a portrait on the Joe Pye Weed, just beginning to bloom. We have gotten to know one another, so to speak. It is unlike any other behavior we have experienced, and we promise to tell you about it in more detail very soon. Meanwhile, here is a shot from our portrait session (I am about four feet away with a 200mm lens and an on-camera strobe. moving around freely)

And that is today's garden report as we near the midway point. We leave you with a shot of the garden as it looks today.