Melitaea Persea Montium

The sun heated the top of Mt. Hermon. It was good that my guide, Eran, was a substantial, powerful guy. The liter bottles of water that he carried up there with him were very vital. We spent hours up on the mountain top that day. Looking back on that experience, the view of Syria, laid out below us, was beautiful and serene. Today, men hunt other men (and woman and children) and blast them to bits down there. War!

Marvel at how these butterflies spend the day on this scorched mountain peak, with nary a bottle of water or any source of water in sight. Incredible. This is the only place that Melitaea persea are found in Israel. Good.

These fritillaries (I saw several) all looked harried, as if they had spent a frazzled day at the office. This one thankfully decided to maintain its resting pose during my careful approach. Perhaps it heard my whispered plea of “Stay there, hold that pose. Don’t move.”

A moment of regret: How I sooo wanted to get back up on the top of Mt. Hermon in 2013 and again in June 2014. War! below stopped me. Sad. Too sad. Boy, are men stupid!

Jeff