Almost everywhere that I have seen flowers the last few weeks I have seen skippers. One of the few varieties that I can identify is the Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly (Epargyreus clarus) which I feature in my first photo.
Silver-spotted Skipper
Many of the other skippers, however, look almost the same to me. Wikipedia says that there are more 3500 recognized species of skippers, so I don’t feel too bad about my identification difficulties. Here’s a photo of one of the 3499 non-Silver-spotted Skippers on a sunflower.
Unidentified skipper on a sunflower
This must be the season for the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus), because I see them almost everywhere too. I’ve posted lots of photos of swallowtails recently, but I figure that the bright color of the swallowtails will complement the more muted tones of the skippers. Besides, the different lighting and angles of the shots makes them very different photos for me, even when the subject is the same.
Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail against the sky
Looking downward at a female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
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