Flowers are made even more beautiful by winged visitors.
Happiness is to see wings on petals.
All photos were taken in Colorado in June and July of this year. Please let me know if you can fill in any of the ID blanks:
Photo 1: Fritillary Butterfly (? species) on possible Musk Thistle (a non-native species)
Photo 2: Unidentified bee on water lily
Photo 3: Checkered Melon Beetle on Buffalo Gourd
Photo 4: Fire-necked Longhorn Beetles on unidentified aster
Photo 5: Red Admiral on Echinacea Purpurea
Photo 6: Sulphur Butterfly (? species) on unidentified aster
Photo 7: Monarch Butterfly on Common Milkweed
Photo 8: Two-tailed Swallowtail on Common Milkweed
tanja britton 
Fascinating!
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Thank you, Christian! 🙏🐝🦋
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Beautiful.
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Thank you, Brian! 🙏🐝🦋
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So beautiful☺️
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Thank you, dear Takami! 🙏🐝🦋
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Wir wünschen dir einen schönen Sonntag liebe Tanja.
Es ist immer wieder eine Freude Blüten mit Gästen zu sehen.
Vielen Dank für die wunderschönen Grüße am Morgen.
Brigitte und Buddylein
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Dankeschön, liebe Brigitte. Ich versuche, jeden Tag mit einem Blick auf die Blumen und ihre diversen Besucher zu beginnen.
Ich hoffe, Euer Sonntag in Bremen ist auch schön.
Herzliche Grüße,
Tanja
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How delicate!
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How delicate indeed. Yet, at the same time, how resilient! 😊
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I thoroughly agree with your title! 🙂 (But I do wish our little visitors would sit still a bit longer to allow me to photograph them!)
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Thank you, Ann. I share the same wish. Besides an occasional photo that’s in focus, there are many more that are fuzzy or show only part of the escaping subject. Thank goodness for digital cameras! 😊
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Yes, that is happiness indeed. 😁
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Thank you, Pepper. 🙏🐝🦋
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Hi, Mrs. Tanja-
Thank you so much for sharing these beautiful photos!!
I assume that you use a camera to capture all of your shots, correct?
I especially loved the photos containing the butterfly variations.
🦋
Blessings,
Gavin
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Thank you, Gavin. I also love butterflies, but flies and beetles are equally as important as pollinators so I try to pay tribute to them as well. 🐝🐛🐞
Yes, I do use a camera for my photos. Some cell phones can take great photos, but mine is not among them.
Thank you for taking time during your travels to visit and comment. Keep enjoying your trip.
Tanja
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I always look forward to reading your posts – whether home or away!! 😊
It definitely seems as if you have mastered the art of your camera!! Well done!
I agree with you that beetles and flies are equally important. It is incredible the purpose each insect playsngs!!
Blessings to you,
~Gavin
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Much appreciated, Gavin! 🙏🌞
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Beautiful and, in a way, inspiring.
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Thank you, Neil! And absolutely inspiring!
🙏🐝🦋
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Visitors, small insects and big butterflies are always welcome at the nectar station of flowers. Great shots, Tanja!
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So true, Peter.
Thank you! 🙏🐝🦋
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Nicely done Tanja. Like Brian across the pond, capturing these subjects takes a fair amount of patience, and just a tiny bit of luck.
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Thank you, Brad. Sometimes they will just pose for us, which I always appreciate. 🐝🦋
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I’m unsure about the identity of the first butterfly, but I recognized the rest, and it made me unreasonably happy to see how many insect visitors we share. It’s always special to capture an insect ‘at work,’ and this set is especially nice.
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Thank you, Linda. I was lazy and did not try to ID all the species shown. The first butterfly is a kind of fritillary, but I can’t narrow it down beyond that and you probably knew that.
I also don’t know the bee in the water lily, the little beetle in the buffalo gourd, or the beetles on the yellow aster.
That brings us back to the benefits of iNaturalist!
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I’m pretty sure the bee in the water lily’s a honey bee. At first, I thought the beetle on the buffalo gourd was a species quite common here — the cucumber beetle — but now I think it’s a checkered melon beetle, which makes perfect sense given where it’s roaming!
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Thank you, Linda, I appreciate the added information.
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Sweet captures, Tanja. I agree, flowers are perfect when they have visitors!
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Thank you, Eliza. 🙏🐝🦋
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Simply gorgeous!
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Thank you, Pit, I’m glad you think so! 🙏🐝🦋
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Following along from your title, perhaps you should have included Heinrich Heine’s “Auf Flügeln des Gesanges.”
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That might have been a little too racy for my blog.
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Your third picture made me realize buffalo gourd grows in Colorado. In fact I found from the range map that it grows in many states and even further north.
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That’s an impressive range. We see them all the time out in the grasslands.
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And here it’s not unusual to see them by the edge of a highway.
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That’s also the case here.
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Your photos are simply fabulous!!
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Thank you, Luisa, it makes me happy you think so. 🙏
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My pleasure always, Tanja 💙
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I haven’t seen too many butterflies this year so far, so it’s a treat to see these visitors on the flowers. These are really nice close-ups Tanja. 🦋🌹
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Thank you, Julie. Three of the butterflies were actually in our garden, which made me especially happy. We have been trying for years to plant native wildflowers and the insects seem to like them.
I hope you will find more butterflies soon–summer is not yet over! 🦋🦋🦋
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Yes I just saw a few of them the other day, on one of my walks…maybe a cabbage white and some pretty blue ones! 💙
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I’m glad. I hope you will see more!
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Great selection of butterflies. I love the swallowtail. We have a species of swallowtail here, but they are rare and very localised – it’s years since I’ve seen one, so it’s good to enjoy one of their cousins in your photo.
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Thank you, Mr. P. I also love swallowtails–they are spectacular. We have at least three different species, the two-tailed one shown here as well as the Western and Black Swallowtails.
This might be anecdotal evidence only, but subjectively, we see fewer than we used to. Alas!
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So fragile and so beautiful. Unfortunately, I cannot help you much on the butter IDs, you got the Admiral, Sulphur and Monarch which pretty much maxes out on my knowledge – I rely on BLH for all my thin winged identification.
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Fragile and beautiful indeed.
I finally signed up to iNaturalist and hope it will improve my insect ID skills. So far, it has proven helpful.
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Wow!! I wish I could slow down a bit and enjoy the nature around me 😀
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Thank you for your comment.
I suspect you are working too hard when you are out and about, maybe you need to plan in some down time during your projects.
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