Finally! I managed to get a Red Admiral.
Do you need to get closer?
Do you see the blue iridescence?
And the little face?
It was joined by a cabbage white.
Then they both left, allowing me to appreciate the buddleia.
Salvia ‘Amistad’ just wanted to get a little mention too. Here with a bee.
What is your favourite butterfly? Do you find them to be pesky to photograph?
Click on the ‘Follow’ button at the bottom of this post to receive a little burst of nature each time I publish a post. I do not share your email address with third parties, and only send an email when I publish a post.
The Mindful Gardener 
🦋WOW!
Red Admirals are our most common butterfly in spring but now it is Swallowtails, both Scarce and ‘proper’.
We don’t get swallowtails. They look beautiful.
Oh goodness what wonderful photographs. How do you manage it?? Thanks for sharing with us
My camera and the garden do most of the work!
Pesky indeed, Sports mode? Fast shutter? I spent ages trying to get a red-tailed bumble bee yesterday without much success. My favourite butterfly is the silver-studded blue which is as stunningly beautiful on the uppersides and undersides.
That does look beautiful. Reading the manual for my camera is still on my ‘to do’ list, Jude!
I do try occasionally, but have come to the conclusion that in the main, auto makes the better decisions 🙂
Yes. Except for red flowers.
True. Red is difficult to photograph. As is white.
Lovely photos! We used to have more Red Admirals (which hubby and I refer to as Red Admirables, not having realised that that’s what they were originally called!) before our current neighbours moved in because the previous ones had more flowers that these butterflies liked. (As well as buddleia, they like ice plant flowers.)
I had to google ‘ice plant’ – I know it as sedum, but it has changed its name recently and is hylotelephium now!! I do intend to grow more of these.
Do, they’re lovely plants! 🙂
Beautiful photos! I haven’t seen any of the Red Admirals here, but we do have lots of swallowtails. My favorite butterfly however is the Monarch! I saw two of them in California this summer. They were feeding on milkweed. But all in all, I love all butterflies!
Monarchs are wonderful. We don’t get them here.
Such sweet little creatures, and charming as they flutter by, lighting on first one, then another, flower. My favorite really is the yellow and black Western Swallowtail in spite of al the hoopla over monarchs.
Their movement is fascinating to watch. The way they bob up and down – it looks like a slightly bonkers way of flying!
While all butterflies are lovely, my favorites are Azure, Monarch and Tiger Swallowtail. They add so much life to a garden.
I’m liking the sound of Azure.
It’s a pretty, rather small, one-inch blue.
It is gorgeous. Beautiful colour.
I read this the other morning. I love that you are trying to capture the butterflies – as you know they are important to me. I think I’ll do my Silent Sunday post on them this week – you inspired me! After taking butterfly photos for years, it does get easier to capture them, I can attest to that! Having beautiful gardens for them to visit is half the battle!
Yay! On my walks this year, I have become enchanted with butterflies. The other day a beautiful, brilliant blue butterfly let me photograph here. I am now completely smitten with butterflies, and I really want one to land on my hand someday, which seems like very wishful thinking, but a girl can dream. I love your photos!
Do you ever get butterfly farms there? We have a couple of open farms where they have butterfly enclosures, and the density of butterflies is such that they do often land on you.
Oh my goodness! This is an excellent question. I am going to check this out.