The Bayview Trail at Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge passes through their Butterfly Garden, a certified Bayscapes garden created using native plants to create a wildflower garden, a living fence, and a water garden. (For those interested, a list of plants used is at the end of this post.)
Here are my best of those butterflies passing through a couple weeks ago that gave me nice photo ops.
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Pearl Crescent
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Pearl Crescent
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Eastern Tailed-Blue
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Common Checkered Skipper
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Common Checkered Skipper
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Monarch
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Monarch
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Monarch
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American Lady
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American Lady
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I also encountered a dragonfly flirting with me.
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Blue Dasher
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And, of course, a bird! They were shooting up on flower heads for seeds and then dropping again out of sight. I was able to get just one goldfinch.
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American Goldfinch
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Hundreds of butterflies can be seen in this garden during the peak of summer. I’ll be eager to see and share them with you next year!
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Eastern Neck National Wildlife Refuge Bayscapes Garden – Plant List