Category Archives: Eatonton, GA

Ogling an Eastern Black Swallowtail Butterfly

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Black Swallowtail butterfly and chrysalis, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch, Eatonton, GA

Forget that it’s cool and raining this afternoon here in Macon, Georgia. Right out my window here, are those dozens of 1-year old Georgia native shrubs, trees and perennials. It’s not my native Brooklyn, not Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, my home for those 27 years. In just 2-3 weeks, the weather here in central Georgia’s Piedmont region, will change. Afternoon temperatures here will reach the high 70’s Fahrenheit.

Those new plants, found last year at the superb Georgia nurseries: Nearly Native Nursery (Fayetteville, GA), Night Song Natives (Canton, GA), Nikki Taylor’s Nursery (Lizella, GA), GMC Native Plant Education Center (Warner Robins, GA) & Beech Hollow Wildflower Farm (Lexington, GA) will brighten our days, lighten our smiles.

This image of an Eastern Black Swallowtail butterfly, out of its chrysalis and awaiting the summer’s morning sun’s rays, this photo stops me. I stop and ogle. The beauty here? It just gets me thinking of how magnificent G-d’s creations are.

Where? The Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat I, in its original Eatonton, Georgia location. Reason enough to get your fennel, dill, parsley plants ready. The chance of finding a fresh Eastern Black Swallowtail in your own garden?

Jeff

The Year 2021 will be Good, Very Good

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

Our Blog’s Media Library of hundreds of images? I love moving through it. Re-meeting images that remind of exhilarating moments some time ago.

This one, of a pair of Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies jumped out at me this morning. I found them, motionless they were, some 2 foot above ground, in the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat I in Eatonton, Georgia. She, her dorsal surface in full view, closest to us, and he, wings closed, below her. They are procreating. Those of you who got to see their offspring, how fortunate you have been.

2020’s quickly coming to its end, and this image, impresses me that 2021 will be Good, Very Good.

Jeff

When the Monarch Returns

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Monarch

Right side view of Monarch butterfly on Tithonia, photographed by Jeff Zablow at Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch Habitat I, Eatonton, GA

The juice of life: When the Monarch butterflies return! The Monarchs we enjoyed this 2020 will return. They may be some worn, but they are among the most admirable, amazing animals I know of. Riding those warm air currents, hundreds of feet above us, to Mexico’s central mountains, and returning on those those high air currents . . . Astounding.

When they return, I hope they will find us healthy, hale and . . . Happy!

Danaus plexxipus. G-d’s superb creation.

Jeff

Want To See A Grown Man–

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Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail
Earring Series - Jeff with Black Swallowtail Earrings (Best shot), at "Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch," Eatonton, GA

This is the shot with the Eastern Black Swallowtails fully on my right ear.Want To See

I went there early, really early that morning. My plan? To hope to find butterflies nestled in their overnight hideaways, and track them as they slowly flew to flat leaves, where they’d remain until the growing morning sun warmed their wings. That plan worked, worked just fine.

I found that coupled pair of Eastern Black Swallowtails. Began to photo them. Heard someone entering the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch and I was concerned that the butterflies would be spooked by that person (?) and flee. Who’d I see arrive? My friend Sylbie Yon. Huh? What? Why had Sylbie come to this mini-wilderness, smack in the middle of Eatonton, Georgia?

I wildly signalled her to slow down, approach us cautiously. She did. I thought fast. Before I could do anything else. The Black Swallowtails flew. Sylbie quietly told me that they’d flown onto me???

I handed her my camera, gave her quick instructions as to how to operate my Canon film Elan camera, and Look! Look! Sylbie capture the now famous Jeff’s Earrings series of shots. I Love these images, the series seen by selecting it at the top of wingedbeauty.com posts.

This is the one that rattled me. The pair moved from my shoulder to my hat to . . . my right ear. I was already ‘pudding’ for such mystical moments melted me, they bringing memories of Frieda A”H and her losing battle with non-Hodgkins Lymphoma/Stem Cell Transplant/ side-effect=Leukemia. I cried, trying to not let my friend see me (on the Brooklyn streets, crying was not done, period).

I will always cherish this, hang with me here, don’t judge, but where I lived my formative years, those streets, guys did not wear earrings,.

Look at me. How I’ve . . . .

Jeff

‘Busters’ Now A Memory

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Filed under Butterfly Types, Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Male Black Swallowtail Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow in the Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, GA

Been doing this now for decades, that is, seeking and photographing butterflies. Some things get easier, including enduring the disappearance of butterflies in the Fall, here in Georgia, and disciplining yourself, with the understanding that they will reappear in the Georgia Spring. Spring here in the southeastern USA comes as early as February. That means that your parsley and rue, domestic and cultivar will begin to prosper, and that also means that these butterflies, Eastern Black Swallowtails will soon appear.

When Black Swallowtails show up, it’s an adrenaline rush. That such a beautiful, elegant and graceful swallowtail butterfly visits your garden, so pleases, you happy that he or she has chosen your robust herbs as the most worthy site for her to deposit her critically valuable eggs, for her to entrust her genetic jewels to your healthy, green favorites. Corollary to that is the warming knowledge that such males head straight to your place, sensing that your natives will draw females, the very same females that males must find, to progress their rich jewels onto the next flight of Black Swallowtails.

This male was seen in the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, Georgia. Atlanta to the west, Augusta to the east. A springtime stunner, for sure.

Jeff