Brushfoot Butterfly Seen In The HolyLand (?)

Posted September 6, 2020

Filed under Brushfoot, Mt. Meron, Israel

Brushfoot Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at Mt. Meron, Israel

Here’s a Brushfoot butterfly that I met on a trail in Mt. Meron in the HolyLand (Israel). I was on a trail I had hiked several times over the years. Many of the butterflies I had seen on that wondrous trail were new to me, and some were ‘Protected’ butterflies, few in number or now found in limited habitat. June was the month.

When this mystery one appeared and landed on this rocky outcrop, some 2/3 up the northern face of Mt. Meron, I blossomed with excitement. I knew I’d never met this one before, and I knew, as happens, I might not meet it again for years, many years. The usual ‘Comments’ are anticipated: I’m too far away from this magical butterfly or We’d need a dorsal image of its wings to make an ID!

It is what it is, and I do want to know what it is. Much time pouring through Dubi Benyamini’s field guide has not left me with that.

This time, I hope that Israeli butterfly authorities Yaron or Oz or . . . .

Jeff

Middle Eastern Swallowtail Butterfly

Posted February 1, 2019

Filed under Ramat Hanadiv, Israel, Swallowtail

So many trips to Israel, and so few chances to photograph Papilio Machaon Syriacus. I’d think of how pleased I’d be to bring you a good image of these swallowtail butterflies, found throughout the Middle East. That was tempered by how difficult it is to shoot a butterfly like this one, a butterfly that refuses to allow you to approach it.

The excitement that I experienced here was electric. I was on a trail at Ramat Hanadiv, the heavily visited wildlife preserve north of Tel Aviv, and very close to the Mediterranean Sea. These yellow blooms were aplenty along the trail, and he flew in to nectar. He must have been very hungry, for he allowed me to approach (robotically) and he tolerated my many shutter clicks.

Fresh, spectacular and for several moments, tolerant. The yellow, the black, the blue and the red-orange . . . Yummy!

Jeff hopes to return to Israel in 2020. Jeff, Thankful.

Jeff

Large Orange Sulphur Butterfly in Texas

Posted April 25, 2018

Filed under National Butterfly Center, Mission, TX, Sulphur

Large Sulphur Butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at the National Butterfly Center, Mission, TX

Every day, new, new. I can’t say that I was getting used to that mini-jolt, when after decades of seeking, you come upon a butterfly you’ve never seen before.

This Large Orange Sulphur butterfly was taking a brief break from what male sulphurs do (fly continuously, until they find a female, even if that takes hours to do).

We were in the National Butterfly Center in Mission, Texas, near the border wall and Mexico.

Did I also meet my first Orange-Barred Sulphur that Texas week? No, but I remember that day at Raccoon Creek State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania, when I have almost no doubt that I startled a vagrant Orange-Barred Sulphur on a trail I followed one morning, in, 2005 or 2006.

Jeff