This Is The Rocking Chair, Where . . .

Posted December 13, 2016

Filed under Eatonton, GA

Habitat Porch rocker photographed by Jeff Zablow at the Butterflies and Blooms Habitat in Eatonton, GA

The work of I think 2 talented men, this is the rocking chair on the faux porch, overlooking one of Americas’s Top butterfly destinations. NABA-certified, the Butterflies & Blooms in the Briar Patch Habitat has probably logged more Oohs! and Aahs! than MIT’s whiz kids can keep track of.

Fight to get there at or before 8:00 A.M., gear up. load my film, and on so many mornings I have compared myself to a whirling dervish, spinning here, then there, there over there, to track and shoot images of fresh, gorgeous butterflies of the southeast . . . and northeastern U.S..

Rolls of film are consumed, disappointments nag, interspersed with . . . triumphs! Two, two decades of wanting a sweet image of a Giant swallowtail, and then there goes a worthy beaut, and . . . and . . . he heads to a Mexican sunflower bloom, and Pop! Pop! pop! go my exposures.

Now exhilarated, Thankf-l for all this and for my being here in very special Eatonton, Georgia, it dawns on me that I 1) haven’t had enough water to drink and 2) am ready to treat myself to my usual, a scrumscious Coco Loco bar. Where?

Bee-line to the ‘porch’ with its 2 rocking chairs, beckoning me. Ahhh, so good to sit and see many dozens of winged beauties aloft in front of me. The palette of color is phenomenal, flowers and butterflies. And, who is that pulling up from Oak Street? Virginia? Stanley? Sylbie? Jim? Susan? Cathy? Lisa? Perfect. Good times at the Briar Patch Habitat, March to November!

Jeff

Red Admiral and The Conundrum?

Posted June 26, 2016

Filed under Admiral, Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Red Admiral butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA. Jeff blogs about the art and science of butterflies at http://www.wingedbeauty.com

2016 will soon close the month of June. After trips to Israel, Georgia, Maryland and western New York state we settled in to consider what we have seen, and Why? Needing more field time to further our observations, I went to my favorite trail, Nichol Road in Raccoon Creek State Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. Three mornings spent on Nichol road trail and the adjoining Doak field (meadow of 100 acres +/-) and the conundrum grew.

Six rolls of film (Fuji Velvia slide, ASA 50 and 100) were shot. The average number of rolls of film shot during 3 mornings in the field, between 1998 and 2013, on sunny mornings without wind, would have been 14 to 18. Yes, I am more discerning now, with a solid library of images going back to the mid 1990’s. No, the exposed film product was not because the butterflies I saw were worn, or bird-struck. Most of what I saw was fresh and 100% intact. The single Wood Nymph I met today was especially fresh and beautiful (though not one exposure of that nervous Lep).

When was I out? The mornings of June 22, 24 and 26. Many butterflies I expected to see did not greet me (American coppers, numerous Wood nymphs, Pearl crescents, Duskywings, Skippers (only saw 3 species across 3 mornings), Sulphurs, Ladies, Hairstreaks, Azures, Eastern tailed blues. The only butterfly I saw much of is one that I rarely see, ever, the Northern pearly-eye. I beg your pardon! That tickled my thinking, that 2016 has begun as a footnote year here in this part of the northeast.

The botany? Here were numerous clues. Butterfly weed? Absent. Common milkweed? Scarce and what was there, diminutive. Teasel? Few. Joe Pye weed? Difficult to find. Bergamot, the bergamot that bedazzled me in 2014? Absent. What I did find was a goodly number of a beautiful wildflower, white Beardtongue (Penstemon). Nichol road trail also had an alarming number of Garlic mustard along much of its length.

2016 then is, is certainly a conundrum. The meadows, forests, trail edges and disturbed ground are covered with lush green botany, but populations of butterflies, bees, darners and others are way down. What triggered this stream of consciousness? There was a certain Red admiral butterfly (Vanessa atalanta), as beautiful as this one, that stayed with me on Nichol road trail this morning, posing patiently, moving as I moved, returning again later, and again, and I wondered was it a female, and I slipped into a wee bit of melancholia, sometimes triggered by butterflies since that day in 2008 . . . .

Closing thought? 2016 on its way to being: a Conundrum.

Jeff

Hairy Pink Flax (Israel)

Posted November 21, 2015

Filed under SPNI Hermon, Israel, Wildflowers

I was up there, March 2015, near the base of Mt. Hermon, in the hilly reserve of SPNI Hermon. The trails was busting bountiful with wildflowers, and the butterflies that I came to see and photograph. I’d brought 53 rolls of Fuji slide film (ASA 50/100) through Security in Pittsburgh and JFK New York and again through Ben Gurion airport. Each time Security and I spent more time together than most, with my “Hand Check!”requests, usually met with frowns and shrugs. My film did not get x-rayed once, despite some pleas that the irradiation does effect film. That a chance I do no wish to take.

So it was supposed, supposed to be butterflies only, but . . . the wildflowers could not be denied. New to me, fresh and beautiful.

These Hairy Pink Flax (Linum Pubescens) were just so pretty, perky and inviting. Why they are not pink, Quien sabe? Three field guides seem to ID them as such.

I love butterflies, wildflowers, cantaloupe, black russians, babaganoush, Breyers mint chip, . . . .

Jeff