Posts in Category: butterflies and insects
Calico Pennant
Calico Pennant, Day Brook Pond, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, W. Kennebunk Maine
I posted a shot of another Calico Pennant from Day Brook Pond on the Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area with yesterday’s Day Poem, but the bug deserves another shot…or two. I am sure I will photograph many more before the season is over. They are a beautiful dragonfly.
Sony RX10iii at 600mm equivalent field of view. 1/250th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom. This is a full frame, uncropped shot at 600mm. This camera is so much fun!
Ebony Jewelwing in the shade
Ebony Jewelwing, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennbunkport ME
It is an odd year (so far) for Jewelwings at Emmon’s Preserve along the Batson River. I only found one River Jewelwing when they should have been out, and now the Ebony Jewelwings are way early…but I have yet to find one by the little falls in the river where they usually congregate. So far I have only seen them deep in the woods. In fact, I walked a loop of trail I had not been planning on to find this one…a loop that runs through the forest far from the steam. There was only intermittent sun anyway, and under the big pines there was none…so this is what an Ebony Jewelwing looks like in the shade. Without direct sun, you don’t see the brilliant emerald green metallic sheen of the thorax and abdomen. There is a hint here, but mostly you see the basic blue.
Sony RX10iii at 1100mm equivalent field of view (in-camera crop to 5mp). 1/250th @ ISO 500 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle
Six-spotted Tiger Beetle, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport Maine
While looking for River Jewelwings the other day, I happened to look down at the moss beneath me, and saw this bright metallic green beetle. A closer look showed the six white spots on the black margins of the elytra (hard shell). It was easy to google this morning: “metallic green beetle with white spots” brought up lots of pages about the Six-spotted Tiger Beetle…evidently a common forest beetle across much of the north eastern part of the continent. I don’t remember ever seeing one before. It was small, about 1/2 inch, but the bright green is hard to miss. 🙂
Sony RX10iii at 1200mm (Smart Digital Tel-converter in-camera crop to 5mp). I used Direct Manual Focus to fine tune the auto focus to separate the bug from the moss. 1/800th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom;
Aurora Damsel
Aurora Damsel, Emmon’s Preserve, Kennebunkport, Maine
This is another teneral bug…a newly emerged Aurora Damsel (damselfly). The color will be more bluish when it finishes hardening off into its full adult form, but the pattern on the back is distinctive.
Sony RX10iii at 840mm equivalent (in camera crop at 600mm equivalent). I used Direct Manual Focus to fine tune the focus on the damsel’s head. 1/320th @ ISO 100 @ f4. Processed in Lightroom.
Malachite Green
Green Malachite, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX
For some reason, many of the butterflies at the National Butterfly Garden this year when I visited a week ago were relatively worn specimens. I don’t remember that from previous visits, but I only get there once a year, always in November. The National Butterfly Center gardens are open gardens, not enclosed in any way, so the butterflies you see there are not captive breed…they are wild butterflies and have to make a living in the wild. It shows, by November. The Green Malachite is one of my favorite butterflies. I have only seen it 4 or 5 times, always at the National Butterfly Center, so you can believe that when someone called out from the trail along the top of the berm that one was showing, I hustled right up there. The light was terrible…an overcast day and the butterfly was deep under cover among the plants on the far side of the ditch on the other side of the berm.
These shots were at 2000mm equivalent field of view with the Nikon P900. Hand-held at 1/30th @ ISO 1100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom.
Back-side view.
Two-barred Flasher
Two-barred Flasher, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX
Another panel (three shots this time) of another Rio Grande Valley specialty…The Two-barred Flasher butterfly, from the National Butterfly Center gardens in Mission Texas. The blue on this butterfly is often so intense that it “burns out” in a normally exposed photograph…losing all detail. I always feel that this one got shortchanged in the name department. Something more exotic is certainly called for!
All shots with the Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Silver Emperor Butterfly
Silver Emperor Butterfly, National Butterfly Center, Mission TX
This is a collage of 5 shots of the Silver Emperor Butterfly, taken yesterday at the National Butterfly Center in Mission Texas. As though the butterfly were not spectacular enough with its rich brown body, yellow wing tips, and bold while band, in the right light the male shows a bright blue iridescence along both edges of the white. You can see a bit of it flashing in several of these shots. The name comes from the back-side view, and the silver color of the body and wing band. Again, if the angle of the light is right, it looks as metallic as the spots on a Fritillary. Note the green tongue showing in the two head on shots. All together one fine looking butterfly…and just rare enough to cause a stir whenever one is found on this side of the Rio Grande.
Nikon P610 at 1440mm equivalent field of view. 1/400th @ ISO 100 @ f6.5. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Texas Bound
Red Bordered Pixy. National Butterfly Center, Mission Texas
I am leaving in a few moments for a 14 hour journey to the Rio Grande Valley Birding Festival in Texas. If all goes well, tomorrow morning I will be at the National Butterfly Center south of Mission, Texas, photographing butterflies and dragonflies. This shot, a Red-bordered Pixy, is from last year, taken with the Sony HX400V I was using at the time. The butterfly gardens at the National Butterfly Center are one of favorite places to photograph, anywhere, and then there all the other great spots in the Valley. It is a working trip and time in the field will be limited, but still it is always good. I am looking forward to some great photo ops!
Red Admiral
Red Admiral Butterfly, Lighthouse State Park, Cape May NJ
I have not been out this morning to see if the front pushed any other birds in, but yesterday was certainly another Yellow-rumped Warbler day at Cape May. There were also lots of Red Admirals…mostly well worn specimens…probably migrants. They were, mostly, moving fast and fluttering high. For some reason this Admiral sat nicely for me, in good light. This collage shows both front and back-side views. The front side view is a tele-macro at 1440mm equivalent field of view, but the back side view is a true macro at 95mm equivalent. I was within a few inches of the butterfly. 🙂 In my experience, you don’t get to do that often in the field.
Nikon P610. Front side: 1/250th @ ISO 125 @ f6.5. Back side: 1/1000th @ ISO 100 @ f4.8. Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.
Blue-green Cricket Hunter (?) Wasp
Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp? Laudholm Farms, Wells ME
I believe this amazing creature, only a little over a half inch long, might be a Blue-green Cricket Hunter Wasp. It could also be a Blue-green Mud Wasp. I have not been able to find any images via a Google search that have the white spot between the wings or the white section in the particularly long antenna. If it is not one of the species mentioned above, it is certainly a close relative. I found it while photographing Bittersweet at the Wells National Estuarine Research Center at Laudholm Farms a few days ago. This is a collage of three shots.
Sony Alpha NEX 5T with 16-50mm zoom @ 140mm equivalent field of view (2x Clear Image Zoom). Processed in Lightroom and assembled in Coolage.