Butterflies at the Beach?

Today my MIL and I took the kids back down to the town beach at the dam and I discovered a very peculiar thing, butterflies at the beach!  I have never seen butterflies just hanging out on the beach, in the sand.  Colton and I chased a few down for some photos.  I managed to capture three stunning species which I will share with you below.

Monarch

Danaus plexippus

This next one was very tough to get a shot of.  He was a little more camera shy than the others.  These photos had to be zoomed and cropped, so not the best, but still a stunning butterfly.

Question Mark

Polygonia interrogationis

The reason for the name Question Mark is because in the photo below, the white markings on the wing look like a question mark.

This next beauty was very peculiar.  At first I thought it was a monarch until it opened up its wings.  While, the back of him is black, white and blue, the underside of the wings were orange, black and white.

White Admiral

Limenitis arthemis arthemis

Oh and I had to look up why they were on the beach.  After combing a few websites it looks like these are all male butterflies and them hanging out on the beach is called, "mud puddling."  They are gathering sodium and nitrates which are found dissolved in mud or damp sand.  Interesting!

If you haven't noticed, I have been snapping photos, a lot of them.  I am really enjoying my camera and now that I am much more familiar with it.  When I find a subject matter that I enjoy, I take an enormous amount of photographs of it.  I try out different lighting/times of day (if possible) and different angles. 

My in-laws put in a new bird, bee and butterfly garden has given me great inspiration and great subject matter to just keep snapping.  I am sure before my trip is over I will have another great handful of photos to share.  This group of shots is of one type of flower and butterfly. 

Flower: Echinacea purpurea 'Magnus' or the common name of Magnus Purple Coneflower
Butterfly: Boloria bellona or the common name of Meadow Fritillary
(side note: I believe that is the correct info for the butterfly, I had to look at several guides on the internet and none of them had a great photo, but I did what I could.  If I am wrong, please correct me.)

I love all of these photos and can't wait to show off even more of scenic Vermont.

Happy Birthday Maben

I want to wish a very Happy Birthday to my first baby, Maben.  We spent a very fun filled day with whatever Maben wanted to do.  Here is a quick break down of his best birthday yet!

Maben started the day off throwing rocks and playing in the dirt.

After getting good and dirty, we took a nature hike to look for some wildlife.

We found lots of butterflies and wildflowers!

We retreated for some lunch and a little relaxing time before we charged back up and headed to the dam for some swimming.

Maben loved playing with his "submarine."  He refused to call it a boat, it was a submarine because he kept putting it under water.  (Uncle Scott...he must get that from you!)

I showed the kids some local wildlife...in the form of a bullfrog tadpole.  I still got some skills, catching tadpoles with a bucket, I haven't done this is about 20 years.

This is actually Colton, but I can't resist showing off his face when he came up close and personal with the tadpole.

Maben played lots of catch with Grandpa, forcing him to get fairly soaked while retrieving the ball.

After lots of fun at a Vermont beach, we headed back to the Grandparents house and Maben helped Grandpa pick some blueberries.

We all ate some dinner and then sang some, "Happy Birthday," to my now 4 year old little guy!

I turned a tray of cupcakes into a Capt. America shield.

Maben blew out his candle and then dug into the cupcake of his choice.

Maben and Colton opened up presents from Grandma and Grandpa and the rest of the night was spent playing until bedtime.

Maben loved his birthday and both of the kids were so worn out that neither of them fought going to bed.  The only thing missing today was daddy...who is stuck back in Texas having to work.  Birthday #2 will happen after we get back.  What a lucky duck...two birthday celebrations.

Favorite Photo Tuesday #17

Colton is my Daredevil!

He is my child that will run into a wall, because he thinks it is funny to bounce off of it and fall down.

He likes to spin in circles because it makes him dizzy and fall over.

He is my child that has scaled anything he puts his mind to without thought of how to get down.

I was fairly convinced he was fearless...that was until I put him on a carousel horse and it started moving.

This is a rare capture.  I have never seen him this scared or upset before.  He is typically the kid that just needs a hug and a quick kiss and it will remedy any injury that he sustains.

The carousel took lots of snuggles to get over.  And since I couldn't stop the carousel, unbuckle and remove him, I took his picture instead.

Photo Scavenger Hunt

As I am sure you can tell, I am all about pushing myself to get creative with my photography to help better my skills.  I am still learning a ton about my camera, I still haven't read through the entire manual yet.  I am also finally remembering to adjust my white balance prior to taking shots, instead of doing it after the fact in Photoshop. 

In order to help fuel my creativity and some of the ladies I am in a photo group with, I put forth a photography challenge...a Photo Scavenger Hunt.

The rules were super simple, find and photograph everything on the list.  Creativity was encouraged!

The list.

• Stripes
• Fish
• Flag
• Blue Shoe
• Map
• Heart
• Pink Flower
• Wheel
• Reflection
• Something Sparkly

I will go ahead and show you what I came up with for this challenge.

Stripes (and or flag)

Fish

Maben had to ride on the horse with a flag taped to it.  I also totally got yelled at by the Merry-Go-Round attendant for taking photos while it was moving. 

Flag

Blue shoe

Map

Heart

Heart

Below is a trailing chenille plant.  Very cool plant and seems to be the only thing really surviving in my flowerbed through this horrible drought.

Pink Flower

Wheel

Reflection

Below is a photo of glitter, taken intentionally out of focus.  It made it look more sparkly this way.

Something Sparkly

Has anyone else done a photo scavenger hunt?  If anyone decides to try one, I would love to see the list and photos.  I plan on doing this probably a couple times a year.  Maben did a great job helping me find some of the items on the list.