I'm back! Part 1: Butterflies......

Mike and I decided to leave town for a couple of days and go over to southeastern Indiana. In particular to the Muscatatuck National Wildlife Refuge and Clifty Falls and whatever else looked interesting in the area. Rain, off and on, was predicted, but we decided to go anyway. We had some gloomy skies, but mostly we were chasing the rain.

I was hoping to see lots of interesting birds, but I always seem to find something different than what I'm looking for. The three things that I saw the most of were butterflies, vultures, and baby Canada geese! That's OK....I like all three!

I'll start with butterflies!We saw a lot of butterfly activity on the gravel roads and parking lots, which were very wet and muddy and full of minerals the butterflies like. Here are two Red-Spotted Purple Admirals.
Their color looks slightly different here.

A yellow Tiger Swallowtail.

This was an interesting group! Note the difference in the two yellow ones. I have a shot of the lighter one below further.

How about three?

Here is that light one.

We saw dozens of Red Admiral butterflies everywhere we went! This is my only shot with the wings almost closed. These little things were all over the roads. I counted about 10 on one road leading into a parking lot.

An open shot of the Red Admiral. I actually got to where I was saying, "Oh, it's just another Red Admiral"......that is how often and how many we saw!

Here is a shot with two. I had another shot with 6 lined along the edge of the road, but they are smallish and it mostly looked like a shot of the road :-)

I'm not very good at identifying butterflies.....either Pipevine or Spicebush Swallowtails.

Pearl Crescent?

A very small blue, I believe. I never see them with their wings open!

Another Red Admiral checking out my tire while I was taking photos.

OK....this is gross....but this pile of animal "poop" was attracting the Red Admirals like crazy as you can see! I think there are 8 butterflies of two types of Admirals on it. Yuck.

A pretty little Skipper....don't know which one.

Don't know.....not a very good shot....Black Swallowtail?

Question Mark.....it's mark is pretty obvious in this closed shot.

Don't know one white butterfly from another.

I saw other butterflies, but wasn't always quick enough to get a photo.

OK....enough for day #1 and butterflies. I'm still sorting and cropping and trying to figure out how to arrange all the stuff we saw. Probably in groups like this rather than my usual chronological walk posting. Too confusing to do it that way.