Category Archives: Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail Butterfly Reports High In Georgia April 2021

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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

Mating Butterflies Photograph will One Day Hang on Our Macon Georgia Walls

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

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

When we select ‘3 or 4’ of our images to be printed and hung on our our Macon, Georgia walls, this one may well be among them. I remember that morning in the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat, as if it were yesterday.

I’d gotten there early, that Eatonton, Georgia morning, and I was near shocked to find this pair of Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterflies, coupled together on a smallish plant. Quick examination left no doubt, this was one of the most beautiful possible visions that one could possibly see.

My thinking, my own thinking at such times? That G-d’s creative crafting, as I crouch there, looking at it, far exceeds that of anything ever crafted by the world’s finest jewelry workshops! That’s what I thought then and there, that warm, sunny morning in Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch Habitat

!

Jeff

After Hundreds of Days Photographing Butterflies, there are Some that Especially Wow! Me

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Filed under Big Bend, WMA, FL, Swallowtail

Palamedes Swallowtail Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow in Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, Florida's Panhandle

I’ve spent hundreds of days photographing butterflies over these decades. Felt very fortunate to be able to do that. Much because I know that few do what I do, and what I do is seek beauty, truth and G-d’s crafted beauty. Here in Georgia’s Piedmont (Central Georgia), there’s been times that I’ve told huge locals why I’m here, or why I’m headed there,, and sometimes those big guys (don’t know what they’ve been eating down here but some of them are more than sizable) don’t reflect much manly approval. Don’t care at all of that, I’ve made ‘my bones’ in life, and seeking G-d’s magnificent butterflies? I know how much that means to me . . . .

There are some butterflies that especially Wow! me. Fresh, colorful, well put together Monarchs, Mourning Cloaks, Coral Hairstreaks, Viceroys, Malachites, Red Rims, Gray Hairstreaks, Compton Tortoiseshells, Red Admirals, Black Form Tiger Swallowtails, Little & Northern Metalmarks . . . and Palamedes Swallowtails like this one stop me, and all evoke Praise from me.

I’ve share before how I’ve seen the world’s finest jewelry, up close, and how the beauty of those fresh, handsome butterflies only draws awe from the now-gone artisans in those jewelry designers’ workshops.

Palamedes Swallowtail Butterfly, Big Bend’s Spring Unit in the Florida Panhandle.

Jeff

This Spring’s Feast of Colors and Welcomed Arrival of Butterflies

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Filed under Raccoon Creek State Park, PA, Swallowtail

Tiger Swallowtail butterfly resting on a leaf photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

The perennials, bushes and trees in our 1-year young 800 Macon Garden are budding out now. Many are looking spectacular, including irises, Joe Pye, Sassafras’s, Clematis, Asters (many, many different asters), Buttonbush, Hibiscus, Liatris . . . . Senna are on order and will soon be delivered. Mountain Mint is doing its quick spreading thing (and we are pleased with that). Lindens and Hackberry trees look robust, Hercules Club new leaves have superb color . . . Butterflies have begun appearing, especially male Tiger Swallowtail Butterflies.

This enjoyable ‘wave’ of pleasing green, the flowers that have opened so far (Chokecherry, Chokeberry, Alabama Croton) have primed us for the 50,000 Azalea blossoms that will open this coming week. Soon the irises will open, and the Turtlehead too, and the many, many coneflowers, tradescantia, Brickellia, Florida Dogwood . . . .

The excitement for us is way up, the feast of colors that is being prepared and the welcomed arrival of flights of butterflies all remind of the infinite beauty of G-d’s Creations.

With Passover and Easter approaching, all of this so buttresses us, after the last, remarkable year. Look again at this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. How Beautiful is this meticulously crafted butterfly, she, G-d’s gift to us all?

Raccoon Creek State Park, southwestern Pennsylvania, some 8 hours from Grand Central Station in New York, New York

Jeff

A Mystical and Elegant Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly at Pittsburgh’s Phipps Conservatory

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Filed under Phipps Conservatory, Pittsburgh, PA, Swallowtail, Tiger

Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly on tall Verbena blooms photographed by Jeff Zablow at Phipps Conservatory Outdoor Gardens, Pittsburgh, PA

This one flew in to the Tall Verbena blooms and began nectaring away. She was very beautiful and those Verbena flowers, with the muted background, add to the mystique of her elegance.

Her tails are full, her bluish/purple wing margin bands elegant, her tiger markings dramatic and her likability, high, very high.

The Outdoor Gardens of the Phipps Conservatory set in the Oakland neighborhood of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, surrounded by universities, museums and hospitals (UPMC) that are 3x larger than you’d imagine.

Jeff