Tempting as it was to stay inside and lie low on another abnormally hot day in Southern Maine, by 2PM I realized that if I did not break free, I would have spent the whole day at the computer. On Saturday! Not good. Still, it is summer in Kennebunk and Kennebunkport, so there are places we locals don’t go, especially on a hot Saturday afternoon (like anywhere with sand and water, shopping, views, etc…anything which might attract the tourist horde). My choices were limited.

I always manage to find something of interest at the short trail at the Rachel Carson National Wildlife Refuge headquarters, and that can be reached without entering tourist territory.

It was, as expected, hot and still in the woods at Rachel Carson. We never get what you would call “high noon sun” here in Maine. Even at mid-day and mid-summer the angle of the light is never more than 60 degrees, and by 2PM it is already easing down toward 45, so the shadows in the woodland are interesting. And there were lots of Wood Nymph Butterflies. Gray patterned with prominent eye spots in cream-yellow patches on both sides of the leading wing, these guys flit through the forest, keeping, in the heat at least, mostly in the deeper shade. I chased a few with the camera, but, again with the heat, they were rarely still for more than a second, and with the deep shade, they were hard to photograph at the telephoto end of the zoom.

So I was surprised when I caught motion out of the corner of my eye as I left the lower deck on the Little River, to look up and see 8 or 9 of them massed on a tree trunk about 15 feet in and up. I watched and shot for 20 minutes as the butterflies clustered in this one spot, then dispersed, only to return, one, two, three, and soon a whole mass of them again. I could not see the attraction. I don’t know what they were doing. And it was still difficult to get a decent shot of butterflies in constant motion in the low light and at that distance with the zoom run all the way out. A tripod might have helped.

And finally, of course, I remembered to switch to video. You can shoot video in light that limits still imaging, and I found a spot on the rail of the deck where I could prop the camera for a fairly still view. The video required some post processing in Sony Vegas…adjusted brightness and contrast.

And I went away from that deck marveling once again at the gifts we are given when we take a camera (or binoculars for that matter) in hand and go out to intentionally look at the world. I have still have no idea what the butterflies where doing on that tree (if one of you don’t tell me, I may take some time this afternoon for a little research) but just finding them, having the opportunity to see them doing whatever it was, was such a gift. I did not bring back great images…and even the video could be better…but that I saw it at all is a thing of wonder and delight. Once more, since it is Sunday, it is grace. I did not deserve it. I could not have earned it. I had no right to expect it. I was a gift outright. Grace.