I was photographing some water lilies when I noticed an insect on one of the leaves. It appeared to be drinking from a droplet of water. Fortunately, I brought multiple lenses with me. This pretty butterfly is only about three or four centimeters long. (Update: Some helpful people on bugguide.net identified this as a Pearl Crescent.)

I looked upward and saw two tiger swallowtails high in the trees. I snapped a few photos and was surprised that one of them actually came out.

Tiger swallowtails have been incredibly numerous this summer. Click on the image to enlarge it and get a good look at the proboscis.

Spicebush swallowtails are probably the next most common. This is probably due to their chosen host plants which are common. The spicebush swallowtail lays its eggs on spicebushes.

We have quite a few different varieties of skippers which look very similar.

Two of the nearly ubiquitous silver spotted skippers. I took the photo because the butterfly on the bottom appeared to be clinging to the one on the top.