Butterflies and bees

Saturday
Another sunny day after a very cool start - unusually cool overnight the last couple of nights for the time of year. We had a leisurely start, but then went to check out a new (to us) State Park, Buck Creek State Park near Springfield, just over an hours drive through Ohio farmland, with fields of corn and soy beans. As many of the state parks, it is centered around a reservoir, C.J. Brown reservoir, which is popular for boating of all sorts. However, since high horsepower boats are allowed, and it’s a holiday weekend, we didn’t bother taking our kayaks, thinking it would be full of speed boats, so we were planning to walk some of the a
Lake view trail. However, when we got there, we were surprised to see it was very quiet out on the water - we saw one sailing boat, one pontoon boat, one motor boat and a couple of kayaks. Still, we had an enjoyable hike, with glimpses of the lake now and again, passing by the campground, and rental cabins. As you can see from my collage, we were treated to the sight of many butterflies and a few bees along our walk, among the Ironweed, Goldenrod and Wingstem. The lower left is the Red spotted Purple ( Limenitis arthemis astyanax), similar in appearance to the dark blue and black swallowtails, but lacking the swallowtail. It was considered to be its own species, but is now considered a sub species and has been combined with the White admiral ( Limenitis arthemis arthemis). The other butterfly in my collage is the Eastern tiger swallowtail, one of the most familiar butterflies in the eastern U.S.