Tag Archives: scat

Horace’s Duskywings Coupling

Posted
Filed under Duskywing, Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

Duskywings Indelicata photographed by Jeff Zablow at Raccoon Creek Park, PA, 5/05/08
May 5th on Nichol Road trail in Raccoon Creek State Park. I almost missed seeing this. Male and female, after completing their appraisals of one another, now successfully coupling. Minutes went by. They remained motionless.

Provide butterflies and all other creatures with undisturbed habitat, fostering the host plants their caterpillars feed on, and the nectar or alternative food (scat, fruit, sap) that nourish the adults, and they will replenish their numbers. No need for corporate, or volunteer or government intrusion. Just don’t destroy the land they call their home, don’t indiscriminately release pollutants to the air and water, and … voila! generation after generation of amazing and beautiful butterflies.

No instruction manuals or how to videos, or coaches were to be seen. Vital, necessary behavior, after the ravages of a long, hard winter of zero degree temperatures.

Jeff

Another Butterfly that Enjoys Eating Fruit and Scat on the Ground

Posted
Filed under Raccoon Creek State Park, PA, Red Spotted Purple

Red-spotted purple butterfly photographed at Raccoon Creek State Park, PA

A habitué of trails and paths in our parks, you’ll see them often in the summer months. As you hike that trail, your approach will send this fast flier up from the trail just ahead of you. It will fly some 30 feet further up the trail and once again land on your trail. When you continue forward, it will scoot into the vegetation lining the trail, only to return to where it started from 3 or 4 minutes later. Very acutely aware, it’s a challenge to photograph macro- (camera lens 15 inches from the butterfly).

This one was very handsome and our 2nd post of a Red-Spotted Purple. Red spots ablaze and the unique blueish glaze. Compare the 2 posts and be reminded that each butterfly is unique.

Rarely visiting flowers, here’s another butterfly that enjoys fruit on the ground and scat.

So . . . if its a Red-Spotted Purple, where’s the purple?

Jeffrey