The Elusive Butterfly

It's been a while since I've been on a photo shoot, and yesterday morning I decided to venture out into the country with my camera to see what I could find. I've been wanting to capture some butterfly pictures and thought that country roads would be a good place to start.

After driving for a while without seeing anything of interest, I was getting discouraged and even considered doing a photo shoot of trash along the roadside. I saw old refrigerators, a sofa, a TV set, and some kind of unidentifiable appliance, the pieces of which were scattered all across the road. It was depressing, to say the least, and I was about ready to head for home when I saw this little fellow sitting beside the road (you can click on the pictures to enlarge them, if you'd like) ...

I thought, hmmmmm ... a turtle is better than litter any day, and turned around and went back to get a closer look at him. By the time I got back to where he was, he had crawled off the road into some grass and just sat there looking at me.

A face only his mama could love ...

After my exciting visit with Mr. Turtle, I stopped to peek through a fencerow and discovered these round bales of freshly cut hay ...

If you follow my blog, you know that I can't resist capturing cows with my camera, and here are a couple that were close to the road ...

Have you ever seen a frowning cow? This one, bless his or her heart, didn't look very happy to see me ...

My next stop was to get a closer look at some trumpet vines growing on a fence row. Isn't it beautiful!

And when I took this picture, I didn't realize I had captured some little creatures along with the flowers (if you click on the photo, you will see a little green bug looking back at you) ...

Here are a few more sights that caught my attention along my way, but still no butterflies!

A shaggy horse that desperately needed a haircut ...

I love this old steeple on the Edwards Presbyterian Church (circa 1869) ...

As I passed by this little guy, I got just a glimpse of him and backed up (the road was deserted, of course) and took this picture from my car. It's not very good, but when I went back to try to get closer, he was gone ...

By this time, I was enjoying my photo shoot, even though I hadn't seen the first butterfly. But that was okay, because I was finding plenty of lagniappe instead. Like this pretty stretch of road lined with old oak trees ...

And this cheerful little flower garden with its colorful array of zinnias and sunflowers ...

I thought to myself, "who needs butterflies when you can capture turtles, shaggy horses, frowning cows, little green bugs, beautiful old church steeples, shady country roads, and pretty little flower gardens."

But luck was with me when I pulled up to an intersection and saw this beautiful bed of lantana at a church ...

And I knew where there's lantana, there's got to be butterflies! And sure enough, I had found my elusive butterflies.

Most of them were black swallowtails, and these two were having a "romantic moment" in some shrubbery ...

I didn't want to intrude, so I followed this one around from flower to flower for about 15 minutes ...

I also captured a picture of this little creature and I'm not really sure what he is. If you can identify him, I would appreciate you letting me know.

He looks like a cross between a bumblebee and a moth, and I love his "gossamer wings." However, I gave him plenty of space because he looked like his sting might be lethal.

All things considered, my morning turned out to be interesting and I'm happy with the pictures I captured. I may go back another day and do one on the "roadside litter." I have a feeling it will be there for a long time, and that's a shame.