First we spotted one on a trail that wound its way through moderately wooded habitat, that not very far from Lynx Prairie’s amazing prairie openings. Northern metalmark, my first ever, was quite a Rush! 2016 introduced me to Little Metalmark butterflies along the Georgia coast (Shellman Bluff and more).

Years and years had passed, and after hundreds of trips through field guides of the butterflies of eastern United States, I was thrilled to finally meet the Little and now Northern Metalmarks.

Very tiny they, shooting Macro- lens meant that I had to view all in a pronounced crouch. This time though, June 2017, my lens was a new Canon 100mm/2.8 with . . . ISM! Image stabilizer built in, a sort of gyroscope in the lens that helped correct for camera sway and photographer sway.

My specific goal? To capture the wavy ‘metallic’ lines that course through the wind margins. I wanted them to shine, to Pop! out at you. They reflect sunlight nicely. This one will do for now. In other ways, it’s a good primer of this sweet, sweet butterfly!

The next day, I somehow got separated from our small group, and found myself alone, with a much larger prairie all to myself. After a bit of silly phummfering about well, why . . . I spotted a Northern, then another until one hour later, that prairie and the surrounding wooded edge, introduced me to more than 40 Northern Metalmarks. Yes, I did my Scream! for joy that morning, in Lynx Prairie in Adams County. After years and years of looking west to Ohio, with no one to enable me to see its rich cache of butterflies, Angela and her gang of very Merry! men and women corrected that, in 4 OMG! days in western Ohio.

Jeff