Today was the perfect day to spend the afternoon at Cheekwood Botanical Gardens photographing mums and such. This was my third meetup group gathering to discuss photography. Everyone is so receptive and asks tons of questions and I love being able to help all of them take better nature photography. While we were in the Robinson Color Garden which was filled with mums in every color of the rainbow it seemed, I happened upon this butterfly that had me perplexed as I hadn't seen one before that I could recall.
And by the way, isn't it gorgeous!
After I returned home I Googled butterflies and discovered it is a Gulf Fritillary. It lives and migrates from Argentina and Mexico across the Gulf of Mexico into the southern United States and southern California. Hence its name Gulf Fritillary. In its larvae stage it is poisonous. Notice the black and white stripes. Those are to warn predators of its toxicity and apparently they do a good job as most birds stay away.
One of the things I readily noticed when I was taking these images was its wing span which is quite wide and not common.
Look at that wing span. Seriously, wide.
I wished I could have gotten an image of its under wing which is buff with large silvery spots, but this little guy wasn't haven't none of that. I will be back soon with more images from my visit to Cheekwood today. I hope you are enjoying your weekend. It has been gorgeous here most of the week. I think often of the folks in South Carolina experiencing major flooding. This past year has been notorious for flooding, tornadoes and wildfires. ENJOY!
