Tag Archives: ear to ear

Northern Metalmark In Southcentral Ohio

Posted
Filed under Lynx Prairie Reserve, Adams County, OH, Metalmark

Northern Metalmark Butterfly at rest photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx Prairie, OH

I go to find beauty, beautiful butterflies. Sometimes I travel alot to do that, as I did here, arriving in southern Ohio after coming there from Georgia. There was never any doubt that the sites that Angela had planned to be would be somewhere between excellent to incredible. They were, starting near Dayton, Ohio and ending in the meadow you’re viewing here, in Adams County, Ohio. miles from the Ohio-Kentucky border.

I struck Gold that day, at Lynx Prairie Reserve, when I found (Yes I did) a fresh flight of Northern Metalmark butterflies. I’d never seen one before, and the more than 50 I saw that morning (Again, Yes I did) were a feast of beauty. They were in a meadow I kind of stumbled into, a sizable meadow. When I saw the first Northern, I could have screamed for JOY! When I kept seeing more and more, Oh My Goodness!

This is a very small butterfly, and they are great to shoot, for they rest often, and when those metallic-lines that run along the outer margins of their wings face the full sun of an Ohio morning, they shine until my smile goes from ear to ear! Honest.

Jeff

Mouth Open Staring At An Edwards Hairstreak

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Filed under Hairstreak, Lynx Prairie Reserve, Adams County, OH

Edwards Hairstreak photographed by Jeff Zablow at Lynx Prairie Reserve, Ohio

Saw a Coneflower growing just inside the entrance to Lynx Prairie. Angela had promised that Lynx Prairie preserve, Adams County, Ohio would be a June bonanza, and those Coneflowers were among the first Wowsas! I’d met that week. I grown Coneflower in my gardens in my houses going back to what, 1980? I never, never  knew that Coneflower, purple Coneflower is a native. A Native American perennial!

Some minutes later, when I got separated from the 5 others, I too quickly thought that Brooklyn boy had been . . . ditched. Used to working alone (naturally), I headed out on my lonesome, and shortly, still alone, entered a large meadow. That’s where I smiled from ear to ear, for that’s where I met dozens of very fresh Northern Metalmarks, our first meeting ever. That’s where I met lots of also very fresh Edwards Hairstreak butterflies, they were so colorful that they surely must have eclosed the day. before, or that morning.

My mouth must have been gawking (kind of open and part of a silly grin) at those Edwards Hairstreaks, Northern Metalmarks, Coral Hairstreaks, Monarchs, Great Spangled Fritillaries & Mystery Fritillary (no pics) that I saw that morning.

OMG! times, just a handful of miles from the Kentucky border with Ohio.

Jeff

Where Do I Sign Up? Really.

Posted
Filed under Eatonton, GA, Swallowtail

Earring Series - Jeff Zablow with Black Swallowtail 'Earrings' - on Arm, at "Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch," Eatonton, GA

I just checked. It’s 64F right now here in Eatonton, in Georgia’s Piedmont region. 2019 saw Jeff making fewer trip to photograph butterflies than he had hoped to. Thankfully it was not a health reason, but rather my infrequent travel in the latter half of the year was due to reasons beyond my control.

People plan and G-d laughs at such, is what I have heard across my life. 2020 is though beckoning me as a Bust-Out-Year. I want to make several trips to seek out butterflies here in the South, in the United States and abroad. I LOVE (Yep! all caps) working hill and dale and meadow and swamp and fen for butterflies. I smile from ear to ear when you ‘Like’ my wingedbeauty.com posts and I grin broadly when you sometimes ‘Comment.’

This is among my Favorite of all images, credit to Sylbie Yon who happened to visit the Butterflies and Blooms Briar Patch Habitat right then, and who, when handed my camera, copped incredible images of my elation, with this pair of coupled Eastern Black Swallowtail butterflies, here on my right shirt sleeve. That elation was accompanied by my inner melt, as this was one of less than a handful of times when butterflies ignited my feeling that my beloved wife, Frieda A”H arranged for this, for the world’s most magnificent butterflies to make their landing on my arm, to remind me of how she . . .

2020 and wild, free, gorgeous butterflies? Where do I sign up? Really. (I just read in my current reading of a book, read why my Artillery unit was one of many that did not received orders to ship out to Viet Nam in ’68, me a young Artillery officer . . . )

Jeff