She is on the plain side, or so you think, until you catch sight of her lush wash of orange, yellow and black and white eyespots. On Israel’s Mt. Meron, on that mountain looking out upon the Israeli-Lebanon border, I wanted to find a fresh Maniola telmessia, the Turkish Brown Butterfly.

Not my first introduction to them, but most I’ve seen over these last years had subdued color. Drab, I guess. I wanted to come back to the U.S. with images of richly colored females. Here she is, nectaring on wildflowers. I am not sure of the name of these blooms, but I do want you to  notice the serious points radiating out from the flowerhead. Many, many wildflowers in Israel are so armored, and you have to be careful, to avoid painful brushes with these mini-spears, that can hurt.

So yes, we, I, do have our favorites, and we do, that is I do, forever want to get that better image, better than the one I already own. Like photographers who work sports venues, I suppose.

Jeff