I love butterflies. I can sit in the garden for hours watching their intricate dances among the flowers. They share the garden with bees in what appears to be a choreographed effort to pollinate every plant in sight, while sipping sweet nectar from dainty blossom cups.
My favorite butterfly is the zebra swallowtail (Eurytides marcellus), with its striking black and white stripes, accented with a bright red slash. The zebra is the most difficult to photograph. It flits from nectar-filled flower to flower, refusing to hold still and pose for my camera. It is a rare treat to capture a shot of the zebra swallowtail.
The colorful eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), on the other hand, is a glamour girl, stopping to pose on Clethra and butterfly bush blossoms, opening and closing its wings like a fashion model working the camera.
The butterfly that spends the most time in our garden, though, is the lovely black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes), with its blue-black wings, rows of powde...