Posts in Category: butterflies and insects
Blue Morpho
Blue Morpho Butterfly, Bocas del Toro, Panama. Tranquilo Bay Lodge excursion
Yesterday Jim and Alvero from Tranquilo Bay Lodge took me across to the mainland to explore an old banana canal and river by boat. The canal passes mostly through forest and is a rich habitat for all kinds of birds and wildlife. Unfortunately the mouth of the river had been blocked by floating vegetation (Water Hyacinth) so we did not get to the ducks, waders, River Otter, etc., but this butterfly alone would have been worth the trip.
There are several species of Blue Morpho butterfly, varying in size from 3 inches to 8. This one appeared to be in 6 inch range. If you have ever seen a Blue Morpho, it is an unforgettable sight. They have, as noted, huge bright blue wings, and they fly with the slowest possible wing-beats…appearing to float lazily over the low vegetation, just about never lighting. And when they do light, they close their wings to show a brown cryptic pattern with just a touch of blue showing at the wingtips. It is so rare to see one perched open like this…so very rare…that I feel incredibly blessed to have been in the right spot at the right moment. Most of the open wing shots you do see are posed at a Butterfly House…this is a wild, free-flying Blue Morpho! How great is that?
Nikon P900 at 2000mm equivalent field of view. 1/200th @ ISO 400 @ f6.5. Processed in Topaz Denoise and Lightroom on my Surface Pro tablet.
Comma in New Mexico
Comma Butterfly, Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary, Santa Fe NM
I know, there is no comma in New Mexico, but I mentioned in the Mourning Cloak post a few days ago that we had also seen a Comma / Question Mark butterfly up Bear Canyon at the Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary, but I was not sure which one. The distinguishing feature is a small mark on the back of the wing, and it certainly takes some imagination even then (or it does for me). However, in researching a bit last week I found that you can reliably distinguish Comma form Question Mark from above. This is definitely a Comma. It has the heavily fringed wings and the correct pattern of dots and dashes on the fore-wing. I think, actually, that makes it my first Comma, and certainly an unexpected butterfly for canyon high above Santa Fe, New Mexico in March.
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped for scale in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Mourning Cloak
Mourning Cloak, Bear Canyon, Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary, Santa Fe NM
Carol and I did some hiking yesterday morning while waiting for Anna to get out of work. We hiked the trail at Santa Fe Canyon Preserve (Nature Conservancy) and then the trail at the Randell Davies Audubon Sanctuary. It was a wonderful morning with good birds, wonderful scenery, and some interesting history of the Santa Fe watershed. At Randell Davies we took the short extension up Bear Canyon. I don’t know what I expected, but I certainly was not expecting butterflies on this brisk March morning with patches of snow still on the trail in the mountains of Santa Fe. Yet, as we reached the end of the maintained trail in Bear Canyon, high up among the Ponderosa Pines, a Western Tiger Swallowtail came up off the ground by the stream and went high into the trees (as they will do). Then, a few yards beyond, a Mourning Cloak (the one in the pic) came floating down above the stream. It eventually landed so I could get some shots. Finally, either a Comma or a Question Mark (I did not get a shot of the closed wings so I can not say which it was) followed the same route down the stream. We saw the same, or additional, Mourning Cloaks further down the main trail. Butterflies!
Sony HX400V at 1200mm equivalent field of view. 1/320th @ ISO 125 @ f6.3. Processed and cropped slightly for scale in Lightroom.
The Cycle of Nature…
Anza Borrego Desert State Park, CA
Late post today, as I took the red-eye from San Diego last night, and got home only an hour ago. I spent the day yesterday in and around Anza Borrego Desert State Park in California. My friend Bruce Aird and I stopped at the Visitor Center to get directions to the best wildflower displays and learned a bit of interesting natural history. When the rains fall at the right time, as they did this year, the desert fairly leaps into bloom. After only a few days, caterpillars appear, many different kinds, both butterfly and moth, and within a few days more the flowers are completely gone (eaten by the caterpillars). When the caterpillars come out, hundreds of Swainson’s Hawks arrive over Anza Borrego to gorge themselves on the caterpillars! We found large blooms of wildflowers, but locals say the earliest blooms are already gone. We did see lots of caterpillers among the plants, busy. And we saw 3 different kettles of Swainson’s Hawks…maybe 50 hawks in total, in just a few moments of looking. And the cycle goes on!
Sony HX400V. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Phototastic on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Tiger Heliconian
Tiger Heliconian. Cuero y Salada Wildlife Refuge, Honduras
There are apparently several of these orange and black long-wings possible in Central America, but I am pretty sure this is, indeed, the Tiger Heliconian…pretty sure because the name seems to be applied to several different species. This shot was at the visitor center after our boat exploration of the junction of the Cuero and Salado rivers a few hundred yards inland from the Caribbean sea. It is a great habitat for birds…mangroves and huge trees lining quiet waters. The visitor center has a small yard and garden and I chased the Heliconian down among the flowers.
Sony HX400V at just over 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/800th @ ISO 640 @ f5.6. Processed and cropped for scale and composition in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Gulf Fritillary
Gulf Fritillary, Big Cypress National Preserve
There were, as I have said before, not a lot of butterflies in December in the Everglades, so I made the most of the few we did see. The Gulf Fritillary was the second most common sighting, after the abundant Zebra Longwings. This specimen is just a bit worn, but still bright enough to capture they eye and the imagination.
Sony HX400V at just into the Clear Image Zoom range beyond 1200mm equivalent field of view (for the slightly closer focus). Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 80 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Great Southern White
Great Southern White: Eco Pond, Falmingo, Everglades National Park
We saw Gulf Fritterlaries and Zebra Longwings (butterflies) pretty much everywhere in the Everglades, but we only saw the Great Southern White at the far south end, out toward the Flamingo Campground along the Eco Pond trail…and there we saw hundreds of them. I tried hard to make this a Florida White, but I am pretty sure it is just a Great Southern. Florida White is more common in the shade and more restricted in habitat…to the point of being endangered. The Great Southern is by far the more common of the two. In my brief research this morning I could find no information that would give me confidence in distinguishing the two, so GSW is the default id here. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 1300mm equivalent field of view (just into Clear Image Zoom for the slightly closer focus). 1/640th @ ISO 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Everglades Zebra Heliconian
Zebra Longwing (Heliconian). Flamingo area, Everglades NP
We did not have a huge number of butterflies the second week in December in south Florida. The temperatures were unseasonably cool, for the area, and most butterflies, even if active in December, were tucked in tight somewhere keeping warm. The exception was the Zebra Longwing (or Heliconian). They were pretty much everywhere we went and flying by mid-morning. Maybe “fluttering” would be more accurate with this bug, as their flight is about as floppy and hesitant as a butterfly gets. I chased a few down when we saw them for photos. This one is on the Coastal Prairie / Bay Shore Loop Trail just at the far edge of the Flamingo campground, about as far south in the Park as you can get. I like the background here (it has, as they say, good bokeh), and I like the exposure, which preserves the saturation in the yellow bands…too often a picture of this bug will show white bands due to the contrast between the black and yellow and the difficulty of exposing for both.
Sony HX400V at just over 1200mm equivalent field of view. Going just slightly into the Clear Image Zoom (digital) zoom range decreases the minimum focus to something in the 6 foot range and gives the best tel-macro effect on the Sony. 1/640th @ ISO 160 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Surface Pro 3 tablet.
Red Saddlebags!
Red Saddlebags. Estero Llano Grande
In Maine we get an occasional Carolina Saddlebags…the other red saddlebags…and lots of Black Saddlebags, but I am always delighted to see the true Red Saddlebags Dragonfly when I visit Texas. It took 3 trips to Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center south of Weslaco Texas to catch one perched in good light, but it was worth it. 🙂
Sony HX400V at 2400mm equivalent field of view (1200mm optical plus 2x Clear Image Zoom). Shutter preferred. 1/500th @ ISO 250 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom on my Lenovo Miix 2 Windows tablet.
Giant Swallowtail
Giant Swallowtail
The Giant Swallowtail is among the more spectacular bugs in North America, on size alone…but the coloring is not to shabby either…especially if you consider both upper and under views. In my experience it is hard to photograph as it is continuously nectaring, hovering in front of flowers with wings quivering rapidly. And then, of course, the contrast between the black uperside and the yellow bands can turn those bands white if you don’t hit the exposure just right. It is definitely worth the effort. These are my most successful Giant Swallowtail images to date. I include both top and bottom views here…which is the only way to do the bug justice 🙂
Estero Llano Grande State Park World Birding Center, Weslaco TX. Sony HX400V. 370mm equivalent field of view. Shutter preferred. 1/640th @ ISO 250 and 100 @ f6.3. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Phototastic Pro on my Windows tablet.