October Beauty

The photos today were all taken October 21, the first four at Ouabache State Park and the last two on our way home that evening.

Common Buckeye Butterfly

I've admired other bloggers' photos of the Common Buckeye many times but had never seen one myself until this day. It made my day.

The photo above may look familiar. It's the same path pictured in my last post but taken 11 days later and showing a bit more fall color.

The picture above shows a little fall color across the "lake." The lake has begun to fill again, but slowly. Still, the Canada geese seem encouraged.

A Closer Look at Some Autumn Leaves

The photo above shows the sunset as we started home that night. The one below shows the same sunset in its dying glory.

Flowers and Flying Things

As most of you know, Doug and I enjoy spending afternoons at Ouabache State Park frequently during the warm-weather months. I probably wore you out with dragonfly photos during the weeks that they were thick there. So you may be pleased to know that there's not a single dragonfly among the flying things in this post.

Most of these images are from recent visits to Ouabache. I hope you enjoy them.

Purple Wildflower and a Pollen-Coated Bee

Purple Wildflowers

Monarch Butterflies are so beautiful. I was pleased to have found one today that allowed me several photo opportunities.

I love their polka dots

Now, this last photo wasn't taken at Ouabache. This was a moth that Doug found on our house this evening as he was scraping paint from our shutters in preparation for having them repainted. The moth startled Doug when it emerged from behind the shutter that Doug was scraping. 

Zale Lunata Moth

Knowing I wouldn't want to miss a chance for a photo, Doug called me to come and see his discovery.

I'm grateful to the organization, Butterflies and Moths of North America, for their help in identifying the Zale lunata moth. 

Red Admiral Butterfly

Doug spotted this beautiful butterfly on one of our bushes this afternoon. I'm not knowledgeable about butterflies, but I submitted a photo of this one to http://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/. They got back to me shortly with the identification. It's a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta).

It's not a rare type of butterfly, by any stretch of the imagination; but we couldn't remember having seen one before. According to the information on the website, Red Admirals prefer sap flows on trees, fermenting fruit, and bird droppings; visiting flowers only when these are not available. Then they will nectar at common milkweed, red clover, aster, and alfalfa, among others.

 

I guess this one couldn't find any tasty bird droppings today.