Wildflower Garden at Brooker Creek Preserve

Common Sootywing

The wildflower garden at Brooker Creek Preserve fluttered with activity this past Saturday. No, the activity did not involve the volunteer gardeners, who meet the last Saturday of each month to improve and maintain this gem. Butterflies provided the activity, flying from flower to flower, occasionally disrupting each other and other insects.

The numerous Gulf Fritillaries maintained a more leisurely pace, languidly flying to each flower, then resting on it while enjoying the nectar and gathering the energy from the bright sunlight. Two Pipevine Swallowtails frantically raced about, colliding with each other either by accident or in a friendly bump to claim territory. They rarely lighted on a flower, instead furiously fluttered their wings as they fed on the pollen.

Gulf Fritillary

A beautiful Zebra Longwing, Florida’s state butterfly, appeared and attracted a lot of attention. It appeared relatively young in its butterfly life since the yellow stripes stood out prominently. A lone Common Sootwing looked a bit drab with all the colors of the other members of its genus flying about.

 

Zebra Longwing our state butterfly

We attended a program that morning that started at 10:30, so the photography took place in very strong, bright sunlight. The butterflies love it, the sun gives them energy. Photographers like it less so. Strong sunlight covered the entire garden so our standard advice to find a section on the shade didn’t work. Casting a shadow, either by having a person stand in the right position or holding a diffuser didn’t work either, it disturbed the butterflies, the subject of the shot. I put my polarizing filter on and tried that. With a few exceptions, I managed to get some nice portrait shots of the butterflies against or on the bright yellow flowers.