Black Swallowtail Butterfly Reports High In Georgia April 2021

Posted April 28, 2021

Filed under Butterfly Types, Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Earring Series - Blackswallowtail butterflies coupled, photographed by Jeff Zablow at "Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch," Eatonton, GA

A better image of the pair, with the female’s dorsal side in view

It’s Good to see so many sharing beautiful images of Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies seen this April 2021 in Georgia. Not going to ask why there’s been a nice increase in this exquisite butterfly. More helpful would be a share of which hostplants nurture and attract them.

Parsley, rue and their closely related plants are their hostplants. These are the plants that they will lay their eggs on, and that feed and sustain their caterpillars. Others are said to be carrots, fennel, celery, caraway, dill. I read that they eat the leaves and some caterpillars eat the flowers.

What fun to bring such elegant visitors to your garden. What uplifting feelings knowing that you are supporting the existence of some of G-d’s most beautiful creations. Often, when you locate a better than average local nursery (Not the Big Box ones), you purchase, and arrive home to find . . . EGGS! already set on leaves of your purchase. I Love when that happens.

It’s good, this 2021, after That Extraordinary 2020, to learn that many are seeing Black Swallowtail Butterflies. I Love That.

Where’d I meet this scrumptious pair? At the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat I in Eatonton, Georgia.

Jeff

Meadow Fritillary’s Future?

Posted April 28, 2021

Filed under Butterfly Types, Fritillary, Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Meadow Fritillary Butterfly at Raccoon Creek State Park

Facebook posts of Meadow Fritillary Butterflies are infrequent. Those who do put up those posts often add that Meadow Fritillary Butterflies seem to be slowly disappearing from their present habitat. They may well be fewer and fewer in number, and that is concerning.

Glassberg’s A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America has Meadow Frits “LC-C {Locally Common to Common]” in the East. I’m now relocated to Georgia’s Piedmont, but during those hundreds of visits to Raccoon Creek State Park (southwestern Pennsylvania) I rarely spotted a Meadow Fritillary. When I did find one, it was exciting, and I’d stop what I was looking for, and quickly work to get shots of them. Those nearly 20 years has me agreeing that they are becoming rarer by the year.

That’s very discomforting. These small Fritillary butterflies so remind of little crafted jewels, especially because when seen, they are usually fresh, vivid and show little evidence of being bird-struck.

The likelihood of finding them in Georgia is slim, their range usually extends no further south than Tennessee. I do miss this little ‘pookies.’ What’re the odds that I’ll see them when I hopefully return to visit western Pennsylvania in late May to June, in Raccoon Creeks State Park’s 100+ acre Doak Meadow?

Jeff

Northern Metalmark Jackpot!

Posted April 25, 2021

Filed under Butterfly Types, Lynx Prairie Reserve, Adams County, OH, Metalmark

Northern Metalmark Butterfly at rest photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx Prairie, OH

I was excited to read his Facebook post yesterday. He shared an image of a Northern Metalmark Butterfly. He wrote that it was some worn and faded, But, he, a well known, knowledgeable butterfly seeker, noted that Northern Metalmarks are imperiled, difficult to find, and that their future is uncertain.

I read his shared information with a combination of chagrin and excitement. Excitement because I’ve posted several times of my visit to that meadow in Lynx Prairie Preserve, after I’d become separated from my friends, and the Amazing discovery that I’d made. My first sighting of Northern Metalmark Butterflies, and an Unbelievable 50 or more of them, all fresh, newly closed and What A Rush that gave me!

G-d has brought me through much, this lifetime, from those streets of Brooklyn all the way to this day. That I am well and out there, is appreciated, much. That I found, just me myself and I, a vibrant flight of a rare, steadily disappearing Metalmark Butterfly, that sunny day in Adams County, Ohio, is a tribute to my friend who enabled me to join that group, to be guided to Lynx Prairie, and to stand there, and know that I had seen something that few can ever see. I will always be indebted to Barbara Ann Case A”H, a real friend and an expert naturalist.

Jeff

Will Her Monarch Caterpillar Descendants Be Visiting Your Milkweed this Year?

Posted April 21, 2021

Filed under Eatonton, GA, Monarch

Monarch Butterfly, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek State Park in Pennsylvania

She’s depositing eggs on this Milkweed leaf. Most of us know that the numbers of Monarch butterflies seen these last years is low, very low. Low enough to deeply concern many of us. Why?

Why have the numbers of Monarch butterflies collapsed? The conifer forests that they visit wintertime, in the mountains of central Mexico, continue to be logged by outlaw lumbermen. This has greatly reduced the wintering habitat for Monarchs. Additional loss of these fir trees will further decimate populations. Here in the U.S.A. loss of habitat has taken its toll, and the use of toxics for agriculture and home gardening/’bugs’ too jeopardizes Monarchs.

What do I think? There should be a national effort to save this American favorite. The U.S. government should do this, for nearly every American child learns of Monarchs in grade school, and most carry that knowledge and the accompanying fondness for Monarchs all the years of their lives.

What can You do to help? Plant Milkweed plants in your garden. Garden small or garden large, plant milkweed where you have sun and moist soil. Plant milkweed in pots where feasible. Your planted and your potted milkweed are hostplants that nourish Monarch caterpillars. Their life cycle, which you and ‘Miss McGillicudy’ probables studied back in Grade 3, is fascinating and calming and reassuring in these unique times.

Suggestion: Don’t purchase your milkweed in Big Box stores. Purchase them more carefully, at local native nurseries (nurseries that stock plants native to your state) or online, from nurseries offering natives. A little more effort . . . But alot more reward.

Me? I see a Monarch, and I’m in love. Honest.

Jeff

I Finally Saw this Special Butterfly at Fort Indiantown Gap near Harrisburg Pennsylvania

Posted April 21, 2021

Filed under Fort Indiantown Gap, PA, Fritillary

Wanted to meet the elegant regal Fritillary Butterfly, and I waited years and year for the opportunity. When I finally first saw this special butterfly, at Ft. Indiantown Gap near Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, I was moved, ecstatic and moved. Yes! It was as beautiful and I had anticipated it would be.

This male was happily nectaring on Butterfly Weed, and tolerated my approach. He evoked such rich memories. When I was a kid in Brooklyn, New York, I used to slip away from those street games, and head into the undeveloped ‘lots’ nearby. We lived on the edge of oncoming development, and in those 1940’s lots I found cottontail rabbits, butterflies and black widow spiders.

I learned some years ago that George Washington’s men marched through my very neighborhood, on their way to battle the British. They probably could have seen Regal Fritillaries. I never saw them there, in East Flatbush, for they were extirpated (gone) long before I arrived. Development and new neighbors are great, but when they come, butterflies . . . .

My mind at this moment? The lyrics of ‘When You Wish Upon A Star‘ sing When you wish upon a star, Your dreams come true (Walt Disney Music Co).

Never met most famous folks, but my dream did come true, for I met and photo’d the extraordinary Regal Fritillary Butterflies.

Jeff