Posts in Category: butterflies and insects
Head-on White-patched Skipper
I really enjoy the National Butterfly Center’s gardens! Really! Enjoy! In the fall of the year there is nowhere better to photograph and study free-flying butterflies. The location, within spitting distance of the Rio Grande River and the Mexican boarder, is ideal for tropical species that are seen nowhere else in the US, and you can easily find 50 species on an average day. And the carefully selected and well tended plantings mean there are many individuals of the most common species, and generally a few rare species. In fact every time I have visited, at least one rare butterfly was on the premises, and generally more than one. A Zebra Cross-streak was seen the day before I got there, and I posed a photo yesterday of the Great Purple Hairstreak…not as rare as the Zebra, but not a commonly seen bug.
This is a White-patched Skipper…one of the spread-winged Skippers. I don’t think it is particularly rare, but it is an attractive bug anyway. This is not a good ID shot, but I like it because to me it captures more of the character of the bug. 🙂
Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1800mm equivalent field of view from about 5 feet. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Great Purple Hairstreak. Happy Sunday!
I was not scheduled to lead a field trip yesterday, and it was really my only chance to get to the National Butterfly Center and it’s butterfly gardens on this trip. The trade show at Rio Grande Birding Festival does not open until noon, so I had a few hours in the morning…three if I left the hotel at 7am to be at the NBC by the time it opens at 8am, and left there in time to be back to open the ZEISS booth. Seemed like a reasonable thing to do. 🙂
I had heard a rumor that there had been a rare butterfly sighting on Friday, and a sign in the Visitor Center confirmed a 3rd US record sighting of the Zebra Cross-wing in the gardens. I did not see the Zebra, and not for want of looking (as far as I know no one saw it on Saturday) but I did see many other beautiful bugs. This is the Great Purple Hairstreak, certainly colorful enough for anyone, and interesting in how the color is carried. It was found by a group of more avid butterflyers who decended on the garden just as I was leaving.
Canon SX50HS in Program with -1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1200mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
And for the Sunday Thought: when I arrived at the NBC at 8am on the day following a rare sighting, the staff, and the other early commers, assumed that I was chasing the Zebra Cross-wing. In fact I was not. As I told those who asked, I was just there to see what I could see and photograph. If the Zebra showed up, I would certainly enjoy it…but I was not about to make seeing or not seeing that one butterfly the test of the quality of my day. And as it turned out, that was a good thing, as I did not see the Zebra. But I had a spectacular day watching and photographing the rest of the bugs, and not a few birds, in and around the gardens.
While I was there someone received a call that a Amazon Kingfisher had been sighted about 12 miles south of Harlingen. The Amazon had only ever been recorded for the US once before. I did not even consider leaving the gardens to go look for it. Even when I got back to the Auditorium (home to the Festival), and saw other’s pictures of the Amazon, I was not seriously tempted to chase it. Rich Moncrief, my associate at the festival, eventually convinced me to go down and look…but the bird was absent while I was looking. It returned about 10 minutes after I left to go back to my duties at the booth.
And I am not at all disappointed. I might take a look tomorrow afternoon, after my morning field trip, if it is still being reported, but I might not too.
Again, I do not like to make one bird, or one bug, the measure of my day. If I had allowed myself to be disappointed, even a little, at not seeing the Amazon (or the Zebra) it would have been an insult to the Red-boardered Pixie and the Great Purple Hairstreak, and even the much more common Queens and Peacocks and skippers I photographed, to the hovering White-tailed Kite and the common Green Jays whose images I caught, and to all the other lovely bugs and birds of the morning. It would have diminished the wonder of everything I did see. And that would simply not be right.
And it would, definitely, be an insult to the giver of all these gifts! Or that’s what I think anyway.
American Ladies in the Daisies
The American Lady butterfly suffers an interrupted migration. They head north in millions to repopulate North America, well up into Canada, each spring, and in fall they turn around and head south. The fact is none of them make it back to Mexico. Once upon a time they probably did. It is a classic migration pattern still followed by the Monarch. But American Ladies repopulate North American with a new generation each year.
This past weekend in Cape May, the American Ladies were everywhere, and that is not an exaggeration: Anywhere there was a flower still in bloom…from the humble Goldenrod to the giant dasies in front of the hotel where I stayed. Many were well worn…missing trailing wing edges…but still eagerly feeding, not yet ready to give up the fight. Clearly they have no idea that they won’t see Mexico again.
And, among the dasies, they certainly make a brave show, and some interesting images.
Canon SX50HS in Program with – 1/3rd EV exposure compensation and iContrast. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f7.1 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on the Samsung Galaxy Note 10.1 2014.
Long-tailed Skipper
The Long-tailed Skipper is not an attractive butterfly as butterflies go…dull gray with few markings…but it certainly has character. In this shot, from coastal Alabama, you can see the proboscis inserted into the tiny opening in the tiny flower in search of what can only be the tiniest drop of nectar. Not an easy living, but the Long-tailed Skipper, with its long slender and flexible proboscis, is particularly adapted to it.
Samsung Smart Camera WB250F. Program with macro. 482mm equivalent field of view. f5.9 @ 1/250th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Fritillary. An alternate view.
As I said a few days ago, there were Fritillaries every where in Coastal Alabama last week, and I brought back, as you might expect, a lit of different views. As the day progressed the wind came up and the Fritillaries had some difficulty hanging on the the waving plants to feed. They achieved some interesting poses, some of which I caught.
I like this unconventional under-wing view. It has a sense of arrested motion that appeals. And i lime the way the bright contrasty light picks out the details on the colorful bug. Or that is the way I see it.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Program and macro. 200mm equivalent field of view. f4.8 @ 1/500th @ ISO 100. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Roseate Skimmer. Happy Sunday!
On Friday I joined the Bayou LA Batre field trip at the Alabama Coastal Birding Festival. We visited several birdy locations in the Bayou La Batre area. I posted an illustrated trip report on gobirding.us. One of the highlights of the trip for me was the number of dragonflies bunched up along the coast as they migrate south for the winter. There were more Black Saddlebags than I have ever seen in one place at one time, a few Red Saddlebags, Green Darners (of course), and lots of Wandering Gliders. The best for me though, were the dozens of Roseate Skimmers I found in a drainage ditch along one of the roads we walked while looking for birds. We don’t get Roseares in Maine. I have only seen them in Texas up to this trip. Lovely bugs!
Canon SX50HS. 1800mm equivalent field of view. Program with iContrast and -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
And for the Sunday Thought. With my growing interest in dragonflies added to my interest in butterflies it is becoming obvious that I no longer fit the traditional birder mold. On the Bayou La Batre field trip, I spent as much time looking at and photographing dragonflies and butterflies as I did looking at and photographing birds. I often found myself way behind the group as I was waylaid by an interesting bug. On the long (or short).stretches of trail or roadside between birds and likely birding spots, while the real birders truged and chatted, only half paying attention, I was still on full alert, checking out every bug I came across. I am sure some of the real birders in the group got tired of my pointing out Saddlebags and Skimmers, Fritillaries and Long-tailed Skippers. One lady asked if I were more of an entomologist than a birder. I had to explain that my interest in birds was a keen as ever, but I supposed it was fair to say that I was becoming more of a general naturalist, with interests in bugs and reptiles and wildflowers and trees…with the whole living world. If makes me the odd man out on birding field trips, so be it. If they are not interested in the Roseate Skimmers in the drainage ditch, it is their loss. 🙂
To me it is the natural continuation of the outward turn that birding is part of. Once you get your eyes of yourself and your inner drama, and focused on the wonder and variety of the Creation that we are emersed in, even if you begin, as many do, with birds, how do you stop there? Why would you stop there? There is so much to see and so much to learn. For the naturalist, there is, literally, never a dull moment in the field.
And if, like me, your interest is, in fact, your offering to the Creator God, an act of worship and fellowship, then certainly you would not want to miss the Roseate Skimmers in the ditch.
Happy Sunday!
Fritillary!
I like Fritiallaries. Big and showy, and with their metallic silver patterns on the under hind-wing, they are a treat to see anytime. In Coastal Alabama yesterday, where I am working a birding festival, they were everywhere we went. They are migrating right now and were apparently bunched up along the coast. Okay by me.
I had several good photo ops. I especially like this shot with the contrast of the pink flower and the lovely green bokeh.
Canon SX50HS. Program with iContrast and -1/3EV exposure compensation. 1200mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ISO 500. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
A well worn Mourning Cloak
I took Carol to Emmon’s Preserve (The Kennebunkport Land Trust) yesterday for the first time in a long time. I have been telling her about the new trails and all the work they have been doing to improve access, and how much I have enjoyed finding new dragonflies in the meadows there. She wanted to see, so we spent the afternoon exploring. I got out of the car, literally, just in time to see a Black-tipped Darner land for a photo op, and moments later, this Mourning Cloak fluttered into the path to warm itself. It was up and away before I could photograph it, but it returned several times to the path, eventually landing practically on my foot. It is a very well worn bug, clearly in its last few days of flight. I hope it had a good summer.
Canon SX50HS at 1800mm equivalent field of view. f6.5 @ 1/1000th @ ISO 320. Program with iContrast and -1/3EV exposure compensation. Processed in Lightroom.
Milkweed Beatle and John Acorn. Happy Sunday!
The Friday night keynote at the Midwest Bidding Symposium was given by John Acorn, the Canadian naturalist who for 7 years was “The Nature Nut” on the Canadian Discovery Channel and Animal Planet in the US. This was, as John says, in the days before animal wrestling shows displaced real programing on Animal Planet. John also used to a regular at the Rio Grande Birding Festival and we have had several brief conversations over the years. He has been off the lecture circuit for several years, raising a family and working a real job, teaching natural history at the college level, but Bill Thompson invited him to this year’s MBS, where he told us about the challenges of teaching kids to appreciate nature in the digital age.
We bumped into each other several times after his lecture, the final time (so far) in front of the Lakeside Hotel where he was poking around in the milkweed pods. I asked him what he was doing and he told me there was an Earwig in there somewhere and, since they don’t have earwigs in Alberta, he wanted a picture. So of course I joined him in his poking. We found the earwig and both took our pictures but while looking I spotted this Milkweed Beatle, a far more colorful creature than an earwig ever thought of being, and of course we both had to photograph that.
We discussed cameras and I showed him my Samsung Smart Camera with its macro mode and WiFi connection, and I told him about processing the images on my Nexus tablet.
Somewhere after the Milkweed Beatle and before we found the earwig a lady walked by on the sidewalk, probably on her way onto the hotel. “What are you doing?” she asked (or words to that effect).
John said again, “There’s an Earwig in here somewhere.” but strangely enough she just kept on walking…as did several others who did not even bother to ask. Clearly John’s celebrity has taken a hit since he got a real job, but that was not what struck me at the time. I turned to John and said…”You see, that’s what normal people do. You tell them there is an Earwig in here and they just walk on by…”
“Yes,” he said, “odd isn’t it.”
And of course, to both he and I, and to you probably as you are reading this, it is indeed odd. How can anyone not stop and look at the Earwig in the milkweed? If that is normal then I don’t want to be it. I mean you run the risk of not seeing the Milkweed Beatle either…and who knows what else.
There is no pleasure greater, I my humble opinion, than going through life with your eyes open to the wonder of creation. John Acorn has always had it right. Go ahead and call me a nature nut. Proud and happy to be one.
And that, in a nutshell, so to speak, is the Sunday Thought. And let the unexpected Milkweed Beatles be your just reward!
Cabbage White on Aster
They have really huge Asters in Ohio! Especially compared to our New England asters. And I managed to catch a well worn Cabbage White in a rare moment of rest.
This is at the Midwest Birding Symposium near Lakeside OH. Samsung Smart Camera WB800F in macro mode. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.