Photographing a Rare Butterfly on Israel’s Highest Mountaintop

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Posted in Copper, Mt. Hermon, Israel

Rare Copper Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at Mt. Hermon, Israel

Mt. Hermon is the HolyLand’s highest mountain top. We were there to find and photograph the rare butterflies that live there, and in some cases, nowhere else. On that desolate peak, we found a good number of them. All flew at high speed, so capturing images wasn’t easy. Add to that the searing heat that June day, well into the 90’s Fahrenheit, the enormity of the top of that mountain, and, after Eran, my guide, found that unexploded land mine (from the 1967 War?), the edginess of following butterflies off-trail on Mt. Hermon.,

I’ve studied Dubi  Benyamini’s A Field Guide To The Butterflies of Israel carefully, still not able to make an identification of this Fritillary butterfly seen there. Hopefully, Shalev, Oz or Rachael will aid us in its ID. Melitaea Persia montium?

Visiting Mt. Hermon in the HolyLand, via that cable car climb to its 7,000 found peak? Unforgettable.

Jeff

One thought on “Photographing a Rare Butterfly on Israel’s Highest Mountaintop”

  1. Great that you go there. The scriptures say people of all nations will be going there every year when the King rules the earth from Jerusalem. As a biologist, wherever I go I am interested in the plants and animals to be encountered.

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