Things that I love? They include chocolate chip cookies, roast chicken, mint chip ice cream, cara cara oranges, broiled lamb chops, sweet potatoes, apple pie, and fresh Gray Hairstreak Butterflies.
I work a flower bed, this one in the Outdoor Gardens of the Phipps Conservatory, seeking butterflies to photograph, always searching for individuals more beautiful than those you’ve seen before. Invariably I am looking for good-sized fliers. Don’t large butterflies fascinate? Aren’t little butterfly species not very interesting? What is that? Is it a tiny little butterfly resting in that bed of zinnias?
Strymon melinus. She is a looker! Her ventral gray color is rich, and her pair of hindwing tails are intact. Her red-black-white dash-line is vivid on her hind wing. Her posture is erect and assured. Her lipstick-red colored patch was doing what lipstick red does: Hello!
Things that I love? Photographing Gray Hairstreak butterflies just fresh from make-up, costume and stylist; patiently awaiting the lucky photographer. I was determined to share her full beauty amidst her generous and sylvan home. She posed for my camera, then tired of the session. She fled.
Jeff
Related articles
- Butterflies ‘hurt by cold, wet 2012’ (bbc.co.uk)
- UF study shows spiders, not birds, may drive evolution of some butterflies (eurekalert.org)
- 2012 worst year ever for butterflies (telegraph.co.uk)
- 2012 ‘catastrophic’ for butterflies (standard.co.uk)
