sip sweet nectar | Winged Beauty Butterflies

High today in Pittsburgh, predicted to be 16F. Shoveled that 1″ of snow that fell overnight. Truth be told, I need a Winter Antidote, pronto! Opened my 2014 images, and this one is spot on.

Butterfly Weed (Asclepias Tuberosa) was in bloom that 3rd week in July at Doak field (Raccoon Creek State Park, Southwestern Pennsylvania). There were a limited number of these milkweeds, and they were the rich, deep orange that I love. In the morning, they are nectar pumps, and butterflies, bees, wasps, diurnal moths all pay visits to sip sweet nectar, their version of jet fuel.

On July 14th I stationed myself alternately at 2 or 3 of the plants, and waited. The time spent was good. I was not alone much.

Then, “Huh?” This wasp alighted on the blooms. A newbie for me, even after 18 years in the field. Then I saw it. That ½ orange/ ½ black abdomen. Orange delight! The perfect complement to the orange blooms. Beauty in the raw.

Without a field guide at Raccoon Creek, I arrived home to find that this was a Great Golden Digger Wasp. “I beg your pardon?” This type of wasp is found throughout much of the United States and Canada, but solitary and surely uncommon. The adults nectar on flowers. They capture food for their larvae by paralyzing crickets and katydids and then dropping them into their burrows in the ground.

July’s eye candy was painted in a natural orange tone that I love. I long to get back out there.

Jeff

It was that 2nd week of June 2013, and you were wherever your happened to be, some minutes after 11:00 AM, Israeli time. Savannah, Moscow, La Jolla, Seoul, Madrid, Rockefeller Center . . . wherever you were, your eardrums vibrated faintly, prompted by the Scream I, Jeffrey, booomed out from Mt. Meron, almost at its peak. Six years of watching Papilio machaon syriacus elude my Macro- lens, and now, and many flights on El Al and Air Canada (no thanks) and Continental Airlines, 12-13 hours aboard the Kennnedy or Newark take-offs . . . I achieved a long awaited goal, images of Israel’s most common swallowtail. When I captured my exposures, after he flew off, I caught my breath, brought myself up from the left knee (TommyCo knee pad (Love it)), and Ecstatic, I yelled “YES!” at the top of my lungs . . . Sheer ecstasy. I have seen much, done much, suffered too, escaped sure calamity several times, experienced Joy! with much Gratitude . . . but as you will all understand, there is so much left to savor and claim and overcome. Those minutes on the mountain were owed in part to sheer determination and doggedness, learned steadily and over time.

This swallowtail flies from February to December in Israel. They are solitary, fly at great speed, and are unapproachable. How did I get these images with my Canon 2.8/100mm Macro- lens? I was almost where you see I was. After an attempt to photograph other butterflies there, it did not work out. 70 yards from end of the trail, I was to get up from that crouch, when my left eye caught the flight of a large butterfly, heading to my general direction . . . ? My turned head saw . . . Papilio m. fly almost to me, and land on this tiny bloom. Tiny. How long could this mini-blossom treat its guest to sweet nectar? Do you see? The whole experience was improbable! I was at the end of my morning’s search, I was hot and tired, the swallowtail flew in from who knows where to this 1 cm flower, and remained feeding on this lilliputian bloom long enough for me to depress my shutter button about 14 times. OMG! You know where I’m going with this . . .

Sure you’ve seen similar images, much closer up. All that I can offer is that this image, and the other I posted earlier, is in the wild, not photo-enhanced, more than difficult to get, and I think that the colors (actually I know that . . . ) are correct, real-time.

Thanks for reading through . . .

Jeff