Category Archives: Big Bend, WMA, FL

Let’s Connect this Butterfly with a Tune

Posted
Filed under Big Bend, WMA, FL, Satyr

Little Wood Satyr Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, Florida

There we were at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area in Florida’s Panhandle. It was a search for southeastern butterflies, and we found them: Georgia satyrs, Palamedes swallowtails, Tiger swallowtails and more, much more.

It sure surprised me when we spotted this one, a Little Wood Satyr butterfly (Megisto cymela). I’ve lived in Georgia for less than 3 years, and this one? I always associate Little Wood Satyrs as northern butterflies. They’re found in all of the northeastern states of the United States, and further west all the way to the Dakotas, Oklahoma and Texas.

A careful examination of its range map shows that Little Wood Satyrs are found in northern Florida, and that’s where we were.

Watching this sweetie fly onto this leaf, to take in the early morning sun, brought a smile. A small butterfly, it brings to mind that childhood fav, Tinker Belle, that Peter Pan companion.

It brought a smile, and a thought. I thought that this little butterfly deserves a tune, to celebrate its discovery that morning, at Big Bend.

The tune? I so hope y’all come up with just the right one . . .

Jeff

Georgia On My Mind

Posted
Filed under Big Bend, WMA, FL, Satyr

Georgia Satyr Butterfly 3 photographed by Jeff Zablow at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, Florida

Kayaking, SkyDiving, Drag Racing, Rock Climbing, Swimming Off The Coast In 10 Foot Waters, Rescuing Native Plants Just Before Developers Send In Bull Dozers . . . these all provide excitement and thrills to friends and family. They make folks happy. Me?

This is my joy. Wanting to score photographs of uncommon butterflies, butterflies that I either don’t own photographs of or photos of butterflies that I have met before, but am not, not satisfied with the looks that I’ve gotten.

This happily is an image of a Georgia Satyr Butterfly captured on my 2nd trip to Big Bend Wildlife Management Area near Perry, Florida. This Florida Panhandle refuge is an excellent destination, offering dozens of difficult to find butterflies. A transplant from Long Island, New York to Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania to now Macon, Georgia, Georgias sing to me, and this trip to bring back an image or 2, well, I count it as a win, win.

Jeff

Trying To Understand A Tree Frog

Posted
Filed under Big Bend, WMA, FL

Tree Frog photographed by Jeff Zablow at Harris Neck National Wildlife Refuge, Georgia

We kept meeting tree frogs at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area. They fascinate me, they looking a bit goofy to me, and yet at the same time appearing to be wise and long experienced in the ways of the world.

With the upsetting news of the last many years, this tree frog shows no angst, anger or uncertainty. It remains in place, seemingly detached from the distractions that perpetuate in the world around it.

So I stood there, trying to understand this tree frog’s thinking. Was it thinking?

Florida’s Panhandle region, at the Gulf of Mexico.

Jeff

Dragonfly Tips? You’ve Got Dragonfly Tips?

Posted
Filed under Big Bend, WMA, FL, Other Insects

Darner photographed by Jeff Zablow at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area, Florida

I have for these many decades admired Dragonflies. Never, in those 1,000,000 hours in the field, has a dragonfly ever bothered me. In an earlier post here, I retold the real life experience I had with one as a boy in Brooklyn. We lived on the edge of development in the 1950’s, and an undeveloped ‘lot’ was around the corner from my house. That’s where this Love of wildlife began, believe it or not.

One day, I, proud of my speed and street skills (I grew up on those streets, with very interesting friends, so to speak), decided to prove to myself that I was fast enough to catch a good-sized dragonfly in mid-air. Know what? I did, I caught a big one, that’s how fast I was. Arrrrrrrgh! The pain of it’s bite was unbelievable!! I respected my Connected friends and that morning, I came to respect dragonflies forever.

No dragonfly has ever bothered me since, despite the Disrespect that I showed to that East 57th Street dragonfly.

Now, 4 months in, at our home in North Macon, Georgia, the mosquitoes in our natives Georgia backyard are beyond nuisance. I want to put out a ‘Come On Down’ call to dragonflies to come and make this their home, come and daily devour your weight in mosquitoes. No chemicals Leslie, no chemicals. Dragonflies.

Please share what you know of how to attract dragonflies to our central Georgia yard. You’ve got dragonfly tips?

Oh, and this darner was seen at Big Bend Wildlife Management Area – Spring Unit, in Florida’s northern Panhandle.

Jeff