Posts in Category: Blazing Star
Early Northern Blazing Star. Happy Sunday!
Northern Blazing Star with Skipper, Kennebunk Plains Wildlife Management Area, ME
I have never seen the Kennebunk Plains so thick with Northern Blazing Star. The budded plants are everywhere, in thick stands this year. By the first week in August, the second at the latest, the Plains are going to be purple with Blazing Star. Right now, there are only a few plants here and there in bloom, but the promise is there, and barring any unnatural disaster, it is going to be a very good year for Blazing Star. Of course, the Kennebunk Plains are managed, at least in part, for Blazing Star, which is endangered in much of its historical range, and only has the one major foothold left in Maine. Blazing Star is fire dependent, and patterned and scheduled burns on the Plains keep the population healthy.
And, when the Blazing Star is in bloom, it draws its compliment of insects. Bees of several species, lots of Skippers (like the one captured above, which might be the Least Skipper), Hairstreaks (mostly Coral), Swallowtail and Monarch butterflies, and lots of orb weaver spiders. The Halloween Pennant dragonfly hunts among the the other bugs. And the insects draw the birds: Clay-collared and Grasshopper Sparrow, Upland Sandpiper, (all at the limits of their range on the Plains), as well as Savannah and Song Sparrows. The Blazing Star is the base plant, or the most visible member, for a whole community of life…and because it is so beautiful, and so visible, protecting it has protected the whole community. This is good!
I feel privileged to live so close to the remnant population of Blazing Star…to track it year to year in my informal visits to the Plains, and to share it with you in my photos. Being on the Plains when the Northern Blazing Star is in bloom is, for me, a spiritual experience…a instance of natural, spontaneous, worship. Though the Plains buzz with life in August, and hundreds of people come to pick blueberries, for me there is always a hush…a reverence in the presence of the stands of this rare and beautiful plant. It is awesome in the literal sense of the word. I feel the awe, and can only give praise and thanks. Happy Sunday!
Blazing Star Welcome
I still have lots of images from the Tucson trip, but just to prove I am back in Maine, here is the Blazing Star that was waiting to welcome me back. It is not a super year on the Kennebunk Plains for the rare species, or at least not in the accessible areas of the Plains. They burned well away from roads last year and the Blazing Star is always most lush in recent burns. There is still a decent crop, but no solid stands of purple. It is spread thinly over most areas of the Plains.
Sony HX400V at about 120mm equivalent field of view. ISO 80 @ 1/640th @ f5.6. 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.
Blazing Star Visitation. Happy Sunday!
I went again to the Kennebunk Plains yesterday to check the Blazing Star bloom. It is not much more advanced though we had a couple of sunny days at the end of the week. I leave for a week in Tucson on Tuesday, and hopefully it will not be past when I get back. I did manage to catch a number of Insect visitors on the blossoms that were showing…Wood Nymph and Sulphur butterflies and a Skipper, as well as innumerable Bumblebees, and this Flower Crab Spider.
The last Flower Crab Spider I found was white. My references say that the females can change from white to yellow for better camouflage depending on the flower they are using as a hunting perch. I am certain there is actually no thought involved, but clearly whatever automatic mechanism that controls the color change was totally confused by the intense Purple of the Blazing Star. 🙂
Sony HX400V. 60mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/400th @ f6.3. I used program shift for greater depth of field since the flower was moving in the wind and precise focus was difficult. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
And for the Sunday Thought: I did a little poking around on the Web in reflecting on why this spider might be so yellow and found that most insects have much more limited color vision than we do, and those that have similar vision to ours actually see higher into the ultraviolet. So, in fact, I have no idea how a bright yellow Spider on purple Blazing Star looks to any of the spider’s prey. It might be perfect camouflage. We humans tend to assume, until we are reminded otherwise, that our own vision of the world is the only one. Even among our own species that is demonstratably erroneous. It is safe to say that no two creatures see the world exactly alike. We are enriched by both what is common to our vision and, if we allow ourselves to be, by what is different. The common vision can be a good indication of truth. If we all agree on something it must be actual and true, right? Except when it isn’t. And that is where our differences come in. Our differences point to aspects of the truth which none of us see clearly. Literally point to. It is sometimes possible to sense the unseen truth they are pointing if we look at enough of them and take each one seriously as a pointer.
This is nowhere more true than in Religion. Most of what we know, or at least what we can say, about the spirit falls in the “pointing at the truth” category. And that is where we most need to value our differences. I am confident that there is only one spirit and one truth, one spiritual reality. None of us see it clearly, but taking our differences as pointers, we can perhaps more perfectly sense the truth that embraces us all.
It will never be as obvious as a yellow Spider on a purple Blazing Star, but then it does not have to be. 🙂
Northern Blazing Star
It is August on the Kennebunk Plains (it is August everywhere of course) and August on the sand plains means Blazing Star. This endangered member of the aster family has a stronghold on the Kennebunk Plains and I always feel privileged to live as close as I do. I photograph the bloom every year. As usual, I will be traveling at the height of the season, so I went out to the plains yesterday to see if I could catch the early bloom. And indeed a few pioneer plants were showing full color. And such color!
Sony HX400V. 85mm equivalent field of view. Macro. ISO 80 @ 1/800th @ f4. Processed in Snapseed on my tablet.
Blazing Star, Autumn Version
Blazing Star is a rare, fire-dependent, and spectacular plant of forest openings in New England, with a remnant population on the Kennebunk Plains. This was a particularly good year for them, especially in areas of the Plains that were part of the controlled burns of the year before. Come fall and all that is left is the seed heads, which are themselves somewhat spectacular.
Samsung Smart Camera WB800F. Macro. Processed in Snapseed on the Nexus 7.
Weekly Blazing Star Report
Before I head off for Europe this morning, I really should update you all on the Blazing Star bloom. I expect the season will be about over when I return. On the south side of the highway, where they did the latest controlled burn, the Blazing Star are as lush and full as I have ever seen them on the Kennebunk Plains. It is really a sight to see. 🙂
In an attempt to capture the effect, I used a moderate telephoto to compress the distance and fill the frame with flowers where they covered a small rise. Samsung Smart Camera WB250F in Rich Tone (HDR) mode. Processed in PicSay Pro on the 2013 Nexus 7.