Category Archives: Native Plants and Flowers

With a Zabulon butterfly, the Coincidence of my Name, Zablow, Fascinates and Kind of Tickles Me

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Filed under Flowers Loved by Butterflies, Raccoon Creek State Park, PA, Skipper

Skipper Butterfly on a Thistle Flowerhead photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

I look for them alot. Their males do challenge me, for ID’ing Skipper butterflies is somewhat difficult for me, to this day. When I come upon a female Zabulon Skpper, I’m doubly happy. No, make that triply happy.

I find the female Zabulons to be very beautiful, and this one is a good example. She has much to admire. Those purplish-blue spots on the trailing edges of her wings delight, the white spots and white border streak, all seen here, are handsome, the likable brown of her wings is a fav color of mine, and her right eye seen here bordered by white markings, that too is pretty.

Know too that when I meet a Zabulon butterfly, the coincidence of my name, Zablow, and Zabulon fascinates and kind of tickles me, it does.

She was busy nectaring on this sizable Thistle flowerhead in Raccoon Creek State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania, some 8 plus hours from the famous Brooklyn Bridge that spans Brooklyn and New York, New York (Manhattan).

Jeff

Nearly Ripe Pomegranates are Sacred Fruit in Jerusalem

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Filed under Jerusalem, Israel, Native Plants and Flowers

Pomegranates photographed by Jeff Zablow at Jerusalem, Israel

We were in Jerusalem. The HolyLand. Everything there was not the same. Everything meant more, touched me, and, you remember how I write that THEY no doubt also stopped to watch those butterflies, the butterflies of Jerusalem, Bethlehem, Caesaria, the Galilee, the Golan and Ein Gedi.

Walking just minutes from the Kotel (the Western Wall) I came upon this Pomegranate tree. The Pomegranates were nearly ripe. Grapes, Pomegranates . . . the sacred fruits of Jerusalem. Pomegranates of Jerusalem, more than enough to take me away from my search for butterflies.

Did I find different species of butterflies nearby, just minutes from the Kotel? I sure did, many more than I had expected to find.

Jeff

Cruising through Hundreds of Images, I Stopped at a Coneflower

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Filed under Flowers Loved by Butterflies, Lynx Prairie Reserve, Adams County, OH, Native Plants and Flowers, Wildflowers

Coneflower photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx, Prairie Reserve, Ohio

Cruising through the hundreds of images in our Media Library bank, I stopped right here, at the enticing image of this native Coneflower, at Lynx Prairie Reserve Refuge, Adams County, Ohio. Why did I have to pause there?

We’ve set in a whole lot of coneflower, native and cultivar (truth be told. cultivar for the ‘color”) and today, with a high of 79F, we’ve been working in our 800 garden, front and back. I keep stopping at those same Coneflower plants, again and again examining the spent flowerstalks from last year, squinting my eyes to try and find any, any teeny, tiny appearance of new budding or leaves.

None yet. Nothing to be reported. We’ve been in this North Macon, Georgia for 11 months now, and last year, just as soon as we set Coneflower in, butterflies and bees visited, to reap the abundant nectar and pollen provided.

Waiting at 800, in late February. Georgia is amazing, BJ, Jim, Cathy, Jerry, Marie, Barbara, Phil, Lisa, Lisa, Donald, and y’all. I saw a butterfly today, my first for 2021, in late February. It zoomed by me, and I’d have to guess that is was an Admiral or a Painted Lady, but it never stopped . . .

Jeff

My Heart Beat Jumps when I see a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell Butterfly

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Filed under Flowers Loved by Butterflies, Milbert's Tortoiseshell, Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Ventral View of a Milbert's Tortoiseshell Butterfly on a Teasel Flowerhead photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Your heart beat jumps when a Milbert’s Tortoiseshell Butterfly flies in! Mine does. You just never see them in pairs or threes, and do you expect to see one? No. East of the Mississippi River, they are a northern butterfly.

When this one flew in, and set on this Teasel flowerhead, I was so Thankful for being there, being there then. Add to that the Milbert’s slowly worked the Teasel flowers, one by one, methodically. Better yet, it did not flee when I made my long, protected Macro- lens approach. Icing on the tiramisu cake was that the one was . . . gorgeous. Just look at that flash of nourishing orange on the dorsal surface of that right forewing.

I’m humbled by such limited experiences. I expect that few of you have been so fortunate as I’ve been, to have met and spent many minutes with Milbert’s (this one went to several Teasel flowerheads before it flew).

Raccoon Creek State Park, Nichol Road trail, southwestern Pennsylvania, about an 8-hour drive from the Statue of Liberty boat landing.

(Teasel is an alien plant, FYI, although truth be told, many, many butterflies adore its nectar (as do bees, such as the one shown on the far side of the Teasel)).

Jeff

Help Us Identify this Delicate Wild Orchid

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Filed under Cedar Bog Preserve, OH, Native Orchids, Native Plants and Flowers, Wildflowers

Orchid photographed by Jeff Zablow at Cedar Bog, OH

This trip was one that I went along with a group of Orchid experts, scouring several destinations in Ohio. This was the same Ohio that I’d never entered, though for 27 years I lived nearby, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. What changed? Barbara Ann A”H (OBM”) invited me to join her, Angela and others, and I jumped at the chance. Did we see Orchids? Yes, Oh yes.

This delicate beauty was seen in Cedar Bog, Ohio. With the Loss of Barbara Ann, no quick ID is available to me. I must await your identification. What I do know is that Orchids are those words: delicate; spectacular; gorgeous; inspiring; other-world, etc.. That we still can locate them in these modern times, after more than 100 years of almost total development, is a Blessing.

Jeff