Butterflies, Butterflies, Butterflies!!

I believe this is a black swallowtail.

Wilmington should be renamed the butterfly capital of the south! Since coming down here, I have seen butterflies almost continuously but it took a visit to the Poplar Grove Plantation just north of Wilmington to finally get a chance to take some pictures! So I will take this opportunity to bore you with butterfly pictures (and some of the plantation as well). This peanut plantation was originally owned by the Foy family who owned this house and the two miles of land that stretched to the Sound. The breezes that were blowing on this warm sunny day were amazing. We had privilege of seeing an art show at the same time which was resident in one of the outbuildings.

I do believe this is a gecko -- he certainly looks like the spokesman for Geico.

This is probably some kind of locust (it was suggested that it was a desert locust but the coloring didn't look right -- however, supposedly they can change color). These were HUGE -- probably close to 4 or 5 inches long. There were many of these which obviously loved the Turks Cap plants which were growing by the Weaving building.

This yellow moth was also one of many I had seen but they seldom landed long enough to get their pictures taken! I think this is a Cloudless Sulphur butterfly (or moth?).

Another of the many species of butterfly! I believe this is called a Gulf Fritillary. There are some great sites for identifying both wildflowers and butterflies native to North Carolina!
I thought these were such unusual and beautiful lillies.

This was the kitchen in back of the main house on the plantation.

This is the orb weaver spider which is a very large spider with a beautiful very distinctive web. This one was probably an inch long.

Another view of what I believe is the swallowtail shown above although this might be a Spicebush Swallowtail. You can see the more distinctive markings here.