My first butterfly of the season…a beautiful Mourning Cloak!
Need I say more?
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Several years ago, I was walking off trail, along the east wall of the dry canyon near me. My eyes caught sight of a Sara Orangetip butterfly. I had been chasing them for two years, and was hoping this was my opportunity to get an image of one.
But as I approached the Lepidoptera, my attention was drawn to a butterfly I had never seen. I immediately switched gears and turned my attention to this new bug.
Later, I was able to identify the critter as a Zephyr Anglewing. And so began a quest which continues to this day…photographing as many anglewings as possible.
In the photos below, the first image shows the butterfly with wings closed, the second partially opened and the rest full open. Note the variations of markings in the critters.
For those who have followed my posts from the beginning, you might have seen these images before. But the butterfly is beautiful, it deserves to be seen again.
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After I added butterflies to “shoot list,” I began seeing all sorts of Lepidoptera, some I never knew existed.
One day in the Juniper badlands east of town, I came across one I had not seen before. It was white, with golden yellow veins. So I headed over to image it…but it flew before I could get in position. At that point the chase began.
The chase didn’t last long, as I found out the butterfly can fly a bit faster than I can run, and easily disappears when it wants.
Several weeks later, the opportunity presented itself again when I spotted a golden-veined, white butterfly off in the distance. Once again, the chase didn’t last long.
However, this time it was a successful chase. I got the photo I wanted of the white butterfly with golden veins. That butterfly is the Becker’s White.
As you can see, since then I have photographed a number of Becker’s Whites. I have even learned to recognize them from a distance just by their flying characteristics. Knowing nature sure is fun.
Have a wonderful new year everyone!
Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.
As a kid, there were two kinds of butterflies I remember. The Monarch Butterfly and the Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly.
For the longest time, those were the only ones I knew. Then along came white butterflies and yellow butterflies. However, I still wasn’t paying much attention to the Lepidoptera around me.
Then, a number of years ago, I began photographing the little flying creatures. It didn’t take me long to realize there were a lot more colorful butterflies than I had previous thought.
One of my favorites these days are the blues.
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Last week, I showed you photos of purple wildflowers with critters on them.
This week, it the most common wildflower color in the high desert, and of course, with critters on them – yellow.
I had a few more photos of yellow wildflowers with critters, but the critters just weren’t all that interesting. I do hope you enjoyed this smaller sampling.
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Being in a desert style climate, the major color I see here during my photo safaris is brown. Weeds dry out quickly under the intense sun we get here.
But I also see other colors. Yellow is very common. And so is the color these eight critters are checking out.
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A couple of Camera Critters ago, I showed y’all a Dotted Blue butterfly. It has markings similar to a variety of small blue Lepidoptera found in my area. In case you have forgotten, here is the Dotted Blue again.
I always try to photograph these little leps whenever I can.
Several weeks ago, I was going through some of my photos and noticed one I had forgotten about (I take a lot of photos and have a limited memory 8v). I looked at the image and my first thought was, "I did image a Dotted Blue before.”
Then I looked closer at the butterfly and saw the outer fringes of the wings are not dark in any part of the fringes. I also noticed the dominate outline of the wings. I had read before about a blue butterfly in the west which has evenly colored fringes. It’s a Rita’s Blue.
However, a Rita’s Blue is not found in this area. I’ve checked a number of different blue butterflies, and find nothing to match, except the Dotted Blue. That means I did photograph one before the one above. See for yourself and if you know a definitive identity of it, let me know.
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One of my goals when I went eastward was to photograph as many new critters as I could. Well, I didn’t see all that many, but the ones I did see, for the most part, allowed me time to image them.
A good example is my post two weeks ago of the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail.
Well, on one of my last days in Illinois, I went to the Braidwood Dunes and Savanna Nature Preserve. Wandering the paths of the park, I found a few good subjects.
One was this American Copper.
I was rather pleased to come across this butterfly. I see coppers here, but not this species.
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When I was back east, I was looking forward to imaging new critters. I have shown some of them here in the past couple of weeks, so here's another.
I was walking along the road in front of my mother's place when an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail fluttered by and landed near a trashed soda can. It spent a few minutes there, with me waiting for it to move off so I could get a more natural photo.
But before it flew off, never to be seen again, I did manage to get a few shots. This is the best.
Misty Dawn’s Camera Critter Meme is a great way see critters the world over. Go to the homepage here to see more. Then join the fun and add your own.
