Nature Notes: Butterflies, Mallards, turtle

I'm going to start with some shots of the American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis) which I took during the later part of May and haven't posted yet.

When our Nature Notes host wrote about the migration of the various Vanessa butterflies in the post at this link, I was pretty sure the ones in my garden are there all summer.

However, after reading her post I started paying attention and noticed that I hadn't seen any lately.

I decided to hold off on posting the last of the shots I took until I was sure they weren't still around. At this point I'm pretty sure the American Lady has moved on to cooler spot for the summer. I don't blame her because I would if I could. I live in the North Carolina Piedmont.

Another butterfly that I photographed almost a month ago that hasn't been around lately is the Silver spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus )above and below.

As I mentioned last week I've been seeing many Eastern Tiger Swallowtails in the Yellow as well as black forms but the black forms have been camera shy.

The shot above is actually a black form from last year for comparison with the yellow ones, because the only ones I'm getting any shots of so far this year are the yellow form. The shot below is a recent shot of the Yellow Form.

I don't have any idea what kind of moth the little fellow below, who I photographed recently, is but I think he's cute.

I went to Shelley Lake to check out the wildlife on Monday and there were a ton of geese and ducks and a few heron. The mallards and geese are in many different sizes and I have trouble telling from photographs which ones are adults and which are teenagers.

It's obvious when they are together because the adults are much bigger than the teens. I don't think the mallards above and below are fully grown.

I heard a mother calling to her child to come see the turtle or I would have missed the fellow in the next two shots.

I don't know what kind of turtle he is and I hope he's not a threat to the ducks and geese on the lake. I don't think his head is enough to be a snapping turtle and do the damage that the Rambling Woods turtle did as the post at this link told us about.

For more participants of nature notes, please visit the nature notes home at Rambling Woods. The official day for the theme is Thursday.