Common Buckeye (Junonia coenia)
As much as I like to see the patchwork carnival of bright autumn leaves, I hate to think their arrival marks the beginning of the end for the colorful fluttering butterflies. Sure, the coming of fall also means many birds will be flying south to winter in warmer climes. But to a degree, that's more like a changing of the guard—one group of species being replaced by another. Winter or summer, we still have plenty of birds around. With butterflies, however, it's feast or famine. You don't see many butterflies in January!
Orange Sulphur (Colias eurytheme Boisduval)
I expect that bittersweet thought was on the edge of my mind yesterday when I spent an hour poking around a tiny patch of roadside meadow just up from the cottage. There were butterflies everywhere I looked—flitting in the air, feeding from bloom to bloom, sometimes settling into the long grass or atop a handy weedstem for a rest, occasionally taking off is if they'd suddenly decided to scout some other sunlit patch elsewhere.
Pearly Crescent (Phyciodes tharos)
How many photos of a Common Buckeye does a fellow need? I have no idea…but I made dozens, as if the more images I captured, the more I could hold on to some essence of their delicate winged forms and bright colors. I did the same for every one of the dozen or more butterfly species I saw.
Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta)
Butterfly time is long but limited. Their reign is almost at a close. A month from now, the only thing apt to be stirring here will be a handful of fallen leaves blown by November's searching wind.
Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus)
[NOTE: My butterfly identification skills are, at best, shaky—and I frankly question at least one of the above myself. So if you think I've gotten it wrong, just let me know and I'll make the correction.]
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10 comments:
...the buckeye is gorgeous--the colors, the shape. I understand the need to take just one more shot, and "Bittersweet" keeps going through my mind also. I love all the warm colors of autumn, but the thought of an endless cold, grey winter is not high on my wish list. I hope there will be lots of white stuff thrown in, because it makes every thing beautiful. Sounds like it's going to be quite warm this weekend, so those butterflies will still be fluttering by--yeah!
Kelly…
Wildflowers, butterflies, birds, sunsets, shots of the river…I keep photographing them over and over. Sometimes hoping to capture just a little something extra, a special quality or characteristic, a moment of unique light. But mostly, I think, to simply fulfill and reiterate that which stirred me to make a picture of whatever it is from the very first moment, the connection is remade as it was that first time.
I also love snow, and the white and sparkly world of winter…but odd creature that I am, I love almost equally those dark, dismal, gray days, lit like a set from an obscure Federico Fellini film.
Thank you for your Buckeye comment…
These are just terrific, Grizz! Really. I've taken myriad photos of the Common Buckeye this summer, but yours takes the cake, my friend. Just gorgeous, as are the other photos.
How many photos of the Common Buckeye does one need? I would say that every single shot we take, including the vast majority which no one ever sees, meets a need at some level. We see these lovely creatures snap after snap after snap, and it's in the seeing, I believe, that the spirit is rewarded.
Sadly, my butterflies appear to have headed elsewhere, which is strange, because I would think that Maryland is a little warmer than Ohio this time of the year. Meteorology, however, is just another thing that I know nothing about.
HI GRIZZ-
beautiful pictures - the butterfly colors are lovely.
I miss you.
Love Gail'
peace.....
George…
Considered against the incredible overall quality of your photo work, I'm simply humbled by your praise…
I think you've hit on an important element in explaining why we often tend to make many photos of the same things year after year—we do so as some form of inductive spiritual reward, finding an inner sense of fulfillment as we see and snap and record. It's definitely a "taking-in" process which goes straight to the heart of who we are and what we're about. Perhaps we seek to capture the very essence of the thing, be it flower or burbling stream or butterfly. The accumulated images are like coin of the realm in our inner world.
Okay, I'll drop this train of though for now as I seem dangerously close to committing psycho-babble.
Surely your butterflies haven't vacated Maryland just yet! I know that yesterday, a couple of other similar-looking (to me) meadow patches along the same road were devoid of butterflies, or hosted only one or two…but other patches were overflowing. Anyway, don't give up yet—maybe those East Shore butterflies are just messin' with ya.
Gail…
Thank you…
And forgive me. I've just been remiss in my visitations. But know you're not forgotten. (I'll go give myself a whack on the head.)
Take care…
I'd say the ID is spot on! The Buckeyes have really be proliferative this season. I had tons of them!
Jayne…
I guess my biggest uncertainty was between an Orange Sulphur or Common Sulphur for the second shot. I'm not 100% on number three being a Pearly Crescent, either.
Here, too, Buckeyes seem unusually abundant this year. Those I know! :-D
Beautiful pictures of beautiful flutterbies!! Seeems as though you have the right adjustment on those corrective lenses finally!!!! ;-)
Giggles…
Thank you…and I can, indeed, now see. Finally!
However, I began this ordeal the last weekend in May…and got the lenses I needed (and wanted in the first place!) a couple of weeks ago.
I'm normally pretty stoic by nature when it comes to genuine problems—I'll whine about the little stuff, but just grit my teeth, hunker into myself, and endure the real pains and hardships. Quite honestly, this one was was finally starting to get to me.
You can't believe how glad I am that it's over… (I do sorta miss having to decide which of the four approaching cars was the real one, and which three were only illusions—phantasmagoric figments of optical misalignment.)
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