Silvery Blue butterfly - maybe.

Silvery blue butterfly taking nectar from a Blanketflower.

I have seen a lot of butterflies this last week.  Yesterday, I was out photographing butterflies with my long lens and managed to get at least 5 species, possibly more if some of the fritillaries were not the same species.  A sulphur, a few whites, many fritillaries, a blue, and a few skippers.  I have included a photo of the others below.

Some of the butterflies I photographed yesterday.

Today, out for a walk with my wife on our anniversary (37 years), I saw another 4 species of butterfly I did not see yesterday.  Today it was a police car moth (yes, that's its name), a wood nymph, a mustard white, and another skipper.  This time, though, I didn't have my camera.  

If you think that is all a little much, there is no way you can see 10 or so different species of butterfly in just two days, think again.  There are some 310 species of Lepidoptera found in just Alberta alone.  An excellent website for identifying different species is here.  It is well worth a look.

The home page for the aforementioned website is a Canada wide website giving information on species throughout provinces and one territory.  It includes insects, mammals, plants, amphibians, and more.  i plan on visiting it again soon.  Click here to see what I mean.

Thanks for reading.

Eric Svendsen     www.ericspix.com

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