Multiple Shots Today.............

This random shot gave me an interesting image of the tops of the wings.  It reminds me of two sails on a boat.  The swallowtails vary in personality to my surprise. I have three swallowtails out in the garden right now.  One of them is so scared of me that it heads to the sky as soon as it is aware of me. The other one is so spastic, jumping from flower to flower never really stopping in one place to feed for a long time. The one I do enjoy is this mellow fellow who feeds and meanders with ease from flower to flower. I could take hundreds of photos of it and it just doesn't leave the garden.  I can see him out there from a window and have plenty of time to go and take pictures of it.

The swallowtail feeds on flowers with different wing positions.  I have noticed that when this guy was on the zinnias that it would not open its wings. It would be busy digging into the center of the flower. It was rare for me to capture this V-shape as normally the wings were clamped shut.

When the swallowtail is on the coneflower its wings hang wide open. It may be a balance thing.  I caught this shot from a distance as it was so rare to see it wide open. I had to manipulate the photo to get a better focus on it. I have noticed that the feeding on the phlox is more difficult fot them. It is a kind of flower that they can;t really stand firmly on as all the little flowers.  Because of that  they have their  wings wide open on it too. Because they are not feeling secure on the flower the flit from flower to flower.

This is a shot of the newest butterfly that visits the flowers.  His markings are different than the other two.  When this butterfly saw me walking closer it immediately headed up into the air and towards the trumpet vine that grows in the pine tree at the neighbors.  I just doesn't like to be around moving things with cameras.