A Butterfly in Detour

 While I was waiting for the next ship in Detour, I saw this guy.

He stayed out where I could get a picture.

And then he spread his wings.

I was able to get a little closer.

A Stop for Pelicans

So I slowly make it to last weekend.  I decided to head up to Shiawassee National Wildlife Reserve because I saw some pictures of pelicans and they are neat looking birds.

First up is conspiracy heron.

I think he was also fishing heron.  It's actually pretty neat to watch them when they fish.  They scan the water and when they see something, they dart in.

I kind of liked the reflection too.

An egret on a post.

He's looking around.

Back to fishing.

The first pelican I could see.  Unfortunately, he was too close to the shore and the weeds were getting in the way.

And then I saw this one landing.  I really like this picture.

A group of pelicans.

A more elegant landing in the water.

Flying around.  For some reason, it reminds me of a DC-3.

He was circling around.

I kind of like this picture.

I saw a bunch of butterflies flying around but they never really stopped until this one.

He gave me a nice pose.

And another one.

A cormorant flying by.

I like the way this one is framed.

An egret fishing.

I think he was trying to get a better view.

Another angle of him.

An eastern king bird.

It was almost like he was modeling for me.

and the light was perfect.

He was looking at me.

One more.  This is a beautiful bird.

A fawn.

The fawn's mother.

She stuck around long enough and then bolted when the fawn left.

 And a crappy picture from an uncooperative kingfisher.

Catching an Eastern Swallowtail

As I was getting my pictures of the Clarke, I noticed some lilac bushes.  There were some butterflies flying around them.  I tried to get some pictures of the butterfly.

 I will note that I say tried.  The butterfly wasn't being particularly cooperative.  He'd stand still for a brief second but usually it was somewhere I couldn't get a picture of him.

 This is almost my favorite picture of the day.  You can tell that it is an Eastern tiger swallowtail.

 Sadly they would duck behind the flowers and I'd get a stern shot.

I think I like this one the best.

I even tried to get a shot of one in the air.....that was even less successful.

A Giant Swallowtail

I had to get my license renewed at the Secretary of State's office and since I normally take the days around my birthday off, I decided it was a good day to take off.  Because I made an appointment, it didn't take me too long to get it renewed and that was good thing because I had a chance to catch the Escanaba as she passed Detroit.

 As I was waiting for my ships, I saw this butterfly landing near a thistle. I thought it was a pretty cool looking butterfly, so I took some pictures.

I didn't know it what it was, so I put "yellow and black butterfly" in google and I found out that it is a swallowtail of some sort.

 I think it is a giant swallowtail.  I also think it may be a male one but I'm not sure.

 At any rate, I was able to get some decent pictures of it, despite the wind.

 It landed in a different spots and I was able to get some clearer background pictures.  It was still pretty windy, so it wasn't easy getting this pictures.

I would have to say that this one is my favorite of the bunch.

A Butterfly

In between ships, I saw this butterfly flitting around, so I decided it needed to have its picture taken.