Category Archives: Shellman Bluff, GA

Rare Pygmy Blue View

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Filed under Blues, Locations for Butterflies, Shellman Bluff, GA

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

Glassberg’s wonderful A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America notes that “Eastern Pygmy-Blues rarely open their wings when landed.”

I’d remembered that. After quite a long time spent shooting them in Shellman Bluff, Georgia, this small miracle happened. I came upon a fresh Eastern Pygmy Blue butterfly that landed, for a brief moment. Then . . . it opened its wings and kept them open for moments!

I must have smiled from ear to ear, for this “rarely” is seen.

Here is a rare view of butterfly beauty. I took it. I much appreciated this opportunity, this day in Shellman Bluff.

Jeff

Lilliputian Metalmark

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Filed under Metalmark, Shellman Bluff, GA

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

Nancy and John had a proven spot to find Little Metalmark butterflies. I was very, very excited to finally meet them. When we arrived at the spot, I was amazed. Amazed.

The Little Metalmark butterflies were tinier than tiny! Photograph them? You had to crouch down and constantly move your camera, as they methodically worked the equally tiny flowerhead of these yellow blooms.

Scoring a good image? A Big Challenge. They move, you adjust your camera. They move again, and again and again. My goal was to catch those silver-looking bands as they gloriously reflected the strong Georgia coastline sun.

I’d find an especially fresh Little Metalmark, only to watch it fly to another flower. I’d have to get up once again, from hugging the ground, and reposition myself. I did this over and over and over again.

The late morning sun was merciless, the sweat ran down my forehead, and these Cartier-like gems kept doing there bounce from bloom to bloom hunting.

Here’s one of my more satisfying images. Lilliputian Gems, those Little Metalmarks.

Jeff

Backstage With An EPB

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Filed under Blues, Shellman Bluff, GA

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

In about 1962, I was backstage, with the Radio City Music Hall Rockettes, in their dressing room. When will I ever forget that? Yes, Denise, I really was, and yes I was 19, and well, yes  . . .

This “rarely” seen view of a “LU” (Locally Uncommon – Glassberg in his A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of North America) butterfly, so reminds. We were on Jekyll Island on the Georgia coast, and do I see what I see? This beauty of an Eastern Pygmy-Blue butterfly flew onto this tiny plant, I got down on my belly, and !!! it opened it wings, wide open!!!!

I enjoy this image, for it is happily so color-true.

Backstage once again, and again with celebrity.

Jeff

That Satisfying Moment

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Filed under Metalmark, Shellman Bluff, GA

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

‘Swish’ was the word we used, on the basketball courts back in Brooklyn, when your jump shot went through the backboard rim, smoothly, without touching the cold iron. Some National Basketball Association (NBA) players excel from way back from the rim, sailing the ball on a high arc, ‘swish’ into the rim for a healthy 3-points. Swish.

That’s exactly how I felt when we were on Jekyll Island, Georgia having located a colony of Eastern Pygmy Blue Butterflies. We shot away, at those fresh tinies, just inches from the ground. Backs soon protested the grotesque strain of leaning all the way over, time after time, to perfect our images of these “Locally Uncommon” blue butterflies.

I just surveyed our Media Library of images, and my eyes fixed on this one. Why?

Jeffrey Glassberg, in his superior A Swift Guide to the Butterflies of North America shares that “Eastern Pygmy-Blues rarely open their wings while landed.” Look here and please smile, for this is a view that is difficult to enjoy, of a rare butterfly, found only on the coastline from South Carolina to Texas. Few see what you see here.

Swish!

Jeff

Uncommon View Of An Uncommon Butterfly

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Filed under Blues, Shellman Bluff, GA

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

To find this one, you must travel to the coastal salt marshes and tidal marshes of South Carolina, Georgia, Florida, Mississippi, Louisiana or Texas. This Eastern Pygmy Blue butterfly was met in Shellman Bluff, Georgia. They are beyond tiny, and the blooms they nectar on stand about 3″ above the ground. To shoot them, you must bend all the way down to them, and hold your tongue when, just as you get down to their level, they slowly fly to another bloom, maybe 4 feet away.

Your back begins talking to you, pleading, ‘Why, why?’ Me, I (foolishly) gave up on trying to capture images with my left knee down to the ground, on my Tommy knee pad. Big mistake when I threw caution to the wind and began shooting them with my stomach to the ground!

This image stands out, for as Glassberg notes in his A Swift Guide to Butterflies of North America, these smaller than tiny butterflies “rarely open their wings while landed.”

We were on Jekyll Island, and when I got to my hosts’ gracious home, there was a sizable tick clinging to the center of my chest!! After those tweezers carefully removed it, I sported a large red circle just where it was embedded, and days later, reluctantly went to an Urgent Care office, to be reassured that it was not a vector for serious diseases.

Uncommon view of an uncommon butterfly at some expense, yes Ma’am.

Jeff