Posts in Category: butterfly
Happening Cabbage Whites!
Yesterday there were many Cabbage White Butterflies working what I think is Moth Mullen on the backside of the dunes at our local beach. Cabbage Whites are not very exciting as butterflies go. Even the name is lack-luster. Still, they were just within reach of the 1200mm zoom, and the out of focus beach grass behind them made a wonderful bokeh…and the contrast between the yellow flowers and the white butterflies in the morning light had potential. When I started shooting this butterfly, there was only on on the plant. The second flew in a just the right second. Can you say Photo Bomb!? I could not have planned this shot, but I feel particularly blessed to have gotten it. It made me laugh out-loud!
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f6.3. -1/3 EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom on my new Surface Pro tablet.
Another GSF! Emmons Preserve
There certainly has been no lack of Great Spangled Fritillaries this summer. I see them every time I go to Emmons Preserve. At first they were working the Knapweed…by now they are reduced to Goldenrod and much lower numbers. They are still there though. I caught this one in a sunny alcove at the edge of the overgrown meadow behind the Conservation Trust building. I love the richness of the light and the way it illuminates the wings and makes them look like they are lit from inside.
Sony HX400V. 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/500th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Butterflies of August
And late August in Maine at that. The Common Buckeye in the upper left is a late summer migrant in Maine. In fact it does not breed anywhere in New England. It wanders north seasonally. And then we have the Monarch. Monarchs have been rare in Maine this summer so far. This is maybe the third one I have seen. There is no lack of Milkweed. The fields at Laudholm Farm, where all these pics were taken, are full of ripening Milkweed pods. Just, for whatever reason, very few monarchs. Next (bottom left) we have a very worn Red-spotted Purple. Amazing that it is still flying. Finally my first Black Swallowtail of the season, though I am sure that have been flying for many weeks now. This one is certainly already showing signs of wear.
Sony HX400V at 600-1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Nectar
Great Spangled Fritillery taking nectar from a Clover flower. All business 🙂 I never noticed that GSFs have furry eyes until looking at this shot, and confirming it in others from yesterday. Emmons Preserve, Kennebunkport ME.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 100 @ 1/250th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Wood Nymph on Blazing Star
With Bumblebee bonus! I have photographed Wood Nymphs before. They are, at least this year, our most common Butterfly…everywhere I go in forest and field. However this year they have also been remarkably uncooperative as photographic subjects. Until this week I had not one decent shot for the season. And then of course I encountered this specimen feeding on emerging Northern Blazing Star on the Kennebunk Plains. And I got the Bee as a bonus! How blessed can you get?
This shot is also unusual for the spread wings, caught as the Butterfly teetered on the Blazing Star in the breeze. Wood Nymphs perch with wings closed 99% of the time.
Sony HX400V @ 1200mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/640th @ f6.3. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped for composition.
Summer Azure
The Milkweed Meadow at the Wells National Estuarine Research Reserve at Laudholm Farm is now dominated by Goldenrod, and will be until the Milkweed pods burst this fall. And it seems there is nothing quite like Goldenrod for attracting a wide variety of insects. This Summer Azure Butterfly was uncharacteristically cooperative, well above ground level and sitting still for long enough for some macro shots.
Sony HX400V. About 70mm equivalent field of view. Macro. Program with Program Shift. ISO 80 @ 1/250th @ f4.5. Processed in Handy Photo on my tablet. Cropped slightly for scale and composition.
Another Great Spangled Fritillery
This Fritillery had such a dark mantle that, while photographing it, I was convinced that it was another species…on mature reflection though, and after some Web research, I am pretty sure it is just another Great Spangled. As though “just” could ever describe a Great Spangled! Again this is in the meadows at Emmons Preserve, but in the upper meadow this time. There were more typical GSFs, with much lighter mantles, in the lower meadow on this day. The Knapweed is just about finished for this year…only a few blossoms left…so these might also be the last of the Great Spangled Fritilleries.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 1200mm equivalent (2x digital extender). Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Swallowtail on Cone Flower. Happy Sunday!
There are Tiger Swallowtails everywhere this year. I see them in meadows feeding on Milkweed and flitting through the trees on unknown missions in the deep forest. I see them at Laudholm Farm, Emmons Preserve, Saco Heath, Old Falls Pond, the Waterboro Barrens, and the Kennebunk Plains. I have seen several in our yard, and actually photographed one on our apple blossoms. I almost thought we were going to get out of the Coastal Maine Botanical Gardens without seeing one, but one final turn around the Garden of the Senses and the great lawn after lunch turned up a lovely specimen feeding in a stand of purple Cone Flower.
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/500th @ ISO 200 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Cropped for scale and composition.
And for the Sunday Thought: Comparatively speaking we do not have a lot of Butterflies in New England (compared say, to South Texas)…especially big showy butterflies like the Swallowtail. There are summers when a single sighting would be exciting. This year we have Swallowtails in abundance. I have no idea why, and I don’t even know how to begin to speculate. 🙂 But I am, of course, happy to see them, and I will undoubtedly photograph every one that will sit even remotely still for me. And I will give thanks. I know, year to year, on average, it is our most common big Butterfly. In fact nothing else in New England comes close to its size. So, common or not, every single one is a blessing. Even in a year of abundance, any day with a Swallowtail in it is more blessed than a day without. I have cherrios for breakfast every morning in the warm days of summer (oatmeal in the winter), but that does not mean I should forget to be thankful for cherrios any morning. A day with cherrios in it is always more blessed than a day without. And we do good to remember that. No matter how common the Swallowtails are this summer.
Great Spangled Fritillery!
Yesterday was my July pilgrimage to Emmons Preserve to check the meadows for dragonflies and butterflies and the river for Emerald Jewelwings. Great day. Found and photographed new damselfly: Sedge Sprite. An Ebony Jewelwing landed on my shoulder at the river before I even started looking, and I managed a few good shots. The Meadow was being patrolled by half a dozen Great Spangled Fritilleries…one of whom finally sat for its portrait. Not to mention that I found a Striped Hairstreak in the forest and a Lancet Clubtail in the Meadow. Did I say, great day?
The panel shows the cooperative Great Spangled Fritillery in a variety of poses, so you can appreciate it from all sides. 🙂 And what a great name for what a great butterfly! Great Spangled Fritillery! Fits, does it not?
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 1200mm equivalent (600mm optical plus 2x digital extender). Processed in Snapseed on my tablet. Assembled in Pixlr Express.
Tigers Together! Happy Sunday.
This is an all tiger shot. Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly, and Tiger Lily. I started to write, “sometimes images just happen” …but of course, images always just happen. Be there. Be aware. Be ready. That is the only secret to satisfying photography, especially nature photography. This one is in a stand of Tiger Lily by the bridge over the Mousam at Old Falls Pond. It is a not a safe spot for photography, as the cars come whipping around the curve and over the bridge far too fast, and there is precious little room at the very edge of the pavement to stand, but I am always tempted across the bridge to try to get both the Lilies and the falls in the same frame. Yesterday there were Swallowtails. Such fun!
(Yes I do know that this is not a genuine Tiger Lily. It is only an orange Day Lily. But it is what everyone in Southern Maine calls a Tiger Lily. Actual Tiger Lily is very rare here, even in plantings.)
Olympus OM-D E-M10 with 75-300mm zoom. 600mm equivalent. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 320 @ f7.1. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: Be there.
Since I am recovering from a heart attack, I tire much more quickly than in the past, and every adventure is an exercise in marshaling my stamina to get where I need to go and home safely. Yesterday I was on an errand to Walmart, looking for a storage solution that would tidy my “office” corner of the bedroom enough so my wife does not kick me out. 🙂 (Which she would be completely justified in doing. I seem to create a little pocket of chaos where ever I sit for more than a few moments at at time…and, I have learned the hard way, most people, including my wife, have a much lower tolerance for chaos than I do.) To get to Walmart the short way goes by the Kennebunk Plains, and, of course, I had to stop to see if the Wood Lilies are in bloom yet. They are, just, a few plants here and there, so I did some tramping around and photography there. Then the store itself, and an hour of shopping (there were other things on my list besides the storage). I had planned, on the way back, to take the long way around by Old Falls Pond to see if there were any interesting dragonflies, but I had a five minute debate sitting in the car after loading the 40 pound bag of dog food into the trunk as to whether I had enough energy left to make the detour. Still: The sun was shinning. A nice fresh breeze was blowing. There were white clouds of several descriptions decorating the blue sky. All in all a wonderful July day…so I talked myself into the visit to Old Falls. And there were Swallowtails in the Tiger Lilies! I made it home with enough left in the tank to get me to my chair. (Though I still have not taken the 40 pound bag of dog food out of the trunk 🙂
I have hopes that over time, I will build my stamina back to the point were “being there” is not the major obstacle to what I need and want to do…especially to doing the things that I love to do. I have a plan. I bought a bicycle, and a heart rate monitor, and I am eating even more sensibly than before. Still, the days when I can take “being there” for granted are clearly gone. (And in more ways than one.) And that should, and does, make me even more thankful for Swallowtails in the Tiger Lilies…for Wood Lilies on the Kennebunk Plains, for Snowy Owls on the chimney pots in Kennebunkport, for raindrops on Foxglove in the yard, for dragonflies at the little ponds in town…for all the wonders that are still in easy reach. God is. God is good. God loves us more than we can ever deserve. God is everywhere. We are surrounded by the wonders of creation, where ever the there is that we find ourselves. If we be…we be there. And for that I am profoundly grateful. Happy Sunday!