Category Archives: Metalmark

Northern Metalmark Jackpot!

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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

Finding a New Butterfly, Kind of on My Own, in Ohio’s Lynx Prairie Reserve

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

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

Imagine. You’re in southernmost Ohio, a handful of miles from Kentucky, there with new friends to find orchids, wildflowers and for me, butterflies. You’ve entered a very promising refuge, Lynx Prairie Reserve in Adams County. Somehow you get separated from the rest, and you wander alone, into a sizable meadow.

Without your friends, you just hope that you’ll happen onto your #1 goal, new butterflies that you’ve never seen before. As you work the periphery of that beautiful meadow, you spot a tiny butterfly, flying low and relatively slowly. It’s not a white or a yellow, not an Azure or a Blue . . . What can it be?

Moving fast, you reach this tiny flier, and Ooh My Goodness. it’s a Metalmark? Not a Little Metalmark, too large, too far north and much darker in color than that. Battle Stations! A NEW BUTTERFLY for me, a Northern Metalmark butterfly. In the next hour I found more than 50 of them, a fresh, healthy flight of them, all recently eclosed from their chrysalises. ‘Locally Rare’ in only 4 states, flying just a month or so.

I was ecstatic, I’d struck Jackpot! This life of mine has seen much, and yet, that find, those Northern Metalmarks thrilled me, left me that word again, ecstatic! That finding a new butterfly, kind of on my own, can do that for me, Wow!

I shall always Think Of and Thank Barbara Ann Case A”H (OBM”) for she enabled that trip, and others.

Jeff

The Exquisite Beauty of a Tiny Metalmark Butterfly on a Sunny Georgia Morning

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Filed under Metalmark, Shellman Bluff, GA

Little Metalmark butterfly, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Shellman Bluff, GAWildflowers where Little Metmark butterflies sip nectar, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Brunswick, GA

We tried to find Little Metalmark Butterflies again in 2020, without success. Discouraging that, for when I met them, shown here, I was beyond excited. All those visits to pre-sale Exhibitions of Magnificent Jewelry at New York’s Chrtistie’s, Sotheby’s, Doyle, all those visits to Tiffany’s, David Webb and others, didn’t prepare more for the exquisite beauty of a fresh Little Metalmark butterfly on a sunny Georgia morning.

Without anyone to guide us to them, along the Georgia coast, I fear that 2021, out along the Georgia coastline, will again fail to reintroduce us to that these tiniest, most beautiful works of our Supreme Artisan, G-d.

Jeff

A Tiny Metalmark’s Beauty Surpasses that of Tiffany Glass

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Filed under Metalmark, Shellman Bluff, GA

Little Metalmark butterfly, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Shellman Bluff, GA

I remember when I saw the Rockettes on stage at Radio City Music Hall in New York City. I remember standing there in Oklahoma (Ft. Sill) and yes, the wind did come “sweeping down the plain.” I remember that elevator ride (The Fuller Building in New York, N.Y.) with Diana Ross and I remember those two feral dogs that sized me up, along on a Pennsylvania trail.

I remember when I saw those Little Metalmark butterflies, they nectaring on beyond tiny yellow wildflowers, along that road in Shellman Bluffs, Georgia. First I remember how tiny they were. How can a butterfly be that tiny? Too, I remember how their up close beauty surpassed the works of Tiffany, Cartiers and such.

Who amongst you have seen Little Metalmark butterflies? Thanks to Nancy and John, I have seen them. Will never forget them.

Jeff

Northern Metalmark In Southcentral Ohio

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

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

I go to find beauty, beautiful butterflies. Sometimes I travel alot to do that, as I did here, arriving in southern Ohio after coming there from Georgia. There was never any doubt that the sites that Angela had planned to be would be somewhere between excellent to incredible. They were, starting near Dayton, Ohio and ending in the meadow you’re viewing here, in Adams County, Ohio. miles from the Ohio-Kentucky border.

I struck Gold that day, at Lynx Prairie Reserve, when I found (Yes I did) a fresh flight of Northern Metalmark butterflies. I’d never seen one before, and the more than 50 I saw that morning (Again, Yes I did) were a feast of beauty. They were in a meadow I kind of stumbled into, a sizable meadow. When I saw the first Northern, I could have screamed for JOY! When I kept seeing more and more, Oh My Goodness!

This is a very small butterfly, and they are great to shoot, for they rest often, and when those metallic-lines that run along the outer margins of their wings face the full sun of an Ohio morning, they shine until my smile goes from ear to ear! Honest.

Jeff