Birds, Butterflies and Blooms

 These first two pictures are of a frequent visitor to our garden.  I wanted to get a really good picture in an attempt to identify exactly what kind of Skipper it was although I am still not certain.  I think it is a Leonard's Skipper as it looks exactly like some of the pictures I saw.  This is the back view and the following picture is the side view.  These butterflies are only about an  inch and a quarter wide and move pretty fast. I was very pleased with the detail in this one with the new little camera.

This is the side view.  I have decided that macro photography is really my favorite I guess! One of the ways to tell butterflies generally from moths is that butterflies  have those little feelers on the ends of their antennae which moths don't generally have.

This butterfly is called a  Cabbage White and is very common around here.  You can tell by the spot on his wings.  These rarely stay still but I lucked out and the light was pretty good as well.

American Goldfinches are almost always at my neighbor's bird feeder along with the House Finches and Black Capped Chickadees.

The rest of the above crowd including the beautiful make House Finch.

Last but not least is the Spicebush Swallowtail which is a frequent visitor to our zinnias.  This one is in good shape  unlike the one from the other day.