Butterflies

Butterflies

Our Western Caribbean cruise aboard Royal Caribbean's Navigator of the Seas left Fort Lauderdale on March 3. Our first two days were cruising at sea during which I took photos of the ship. I will share some of those photos at the end of this series.

Our first port was the island of St. Maarten which is actually owned by the French and Dutch. There is an international border that separates the two parts of the island and each side has different currencies, educational systems, airports, gas prices, etc. We booked a tour which took us to a butterfly farm for an hour or so then to Marigot, the French capital. Afterwards we had a tour of the other half of the island and ended up in the Dutch capital, Phillipsburg. Over the next few days I will share photos taken during that tour.

I am starting this series with photos of butterflies at The Butterfly Farm, our first stop. In this relatively small space, there are numerous species of butterflies and I photographed every one I could find. Of course, it is nearly impossible to focus on a butterfly while it is flying so all the photos show them on plants and flowers.

The photos this morning shows a monarch, a tree nymph, an emerald swallowtail (note the top wings in motion and the bottom are still in one of the images) and a tailed-jay butterfly. There are a couple that I haven't identified yet.

Photos of the Day are for sale as stock photographs
and photographic enlargements.

They can also be purchased as slide shows

and/or wallpapers/screensavers.