Female Clouded Sulphur, Bernheim Arboretum

Every now and then an image just pulls you in and this Clouded Sulphur Butterfly does just that. Every time I look at this image I am so captivated by the beautiful yellows of this Sulphur. I captured this image back the first day of August at Bernheim near the Pavilion. The day I snapped this image I was working my way around the Butterfly bushes. There were a lot of blooming Butterfly bushes that day and a lot of Butterflies out that day. There were so many Butterflies that I just kept snapping and circling and snapping and circling. One of those snaps was this beautiful Clouded Sulphur that I'd not had an opportunity to capture before in past excursions.

After reading up on Sulphurs I'm going out on a limb and say this is a female Clouded Sulphur due to the yellow spots inside the dark border of the wings which is customary for females. Males don't possess those dark yellow spots and also have a more prominent black edge around their wings. I especially love the yellow eyes on this Butterfly. Just so cool looking. Please don't ask me just yet as to why I believe this to be a Clouded versus a Cloudless Sulphur, as I'm not ready to qualify my choice yet. After all isn't the point here just how beautiful this Sulphur is? ENJOY!

Summer's Last Hooray

One of my favorite trees at Bernheim sits across from the Pavilion next to the lily pond. It's bark and moss are so gorgeous, but I think it's even prettier with all of the flower garden blooming as it is right now.

So few butterflies this year at Bernheim. Never seen so few. I just hope next year doesn't repeat. Notice the raindrops coming down on this image. Isaac was hanging over Louisville all weekend, even Monday afternoon.

Love the Prairie right now. It's so gorgeous with yellow Daisies and Goldenrod.

A storm moved through this afternoon downing trees. As I ran back out to the car to grab the groceries, I heard this loud cracking noise and looked up. Couldn't have been more than 100 yards away a dead tree finally gave way and fell to the ground. Of all the trees to down in the woods right behind my patio, that was the one I was wishing for. You don't suppose someone heard my wish. I think I'll chalk that up to the oddities of life. ENJOY!