this beaut | Winged Beauty Butterflies

Zebra Heliconian butterfly photographed by Jeff Zablow at Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch Habitat I, Eatonton, GA

The juice is flowing for sure. Sampling the many new shares on the internet, they of fresh, exquisite, purposeful butterflies, brings us to these months that we have so waited for in the United States. We’re now in the latter half of Spring 2018. Each and every trip into the yard, to a State Park, Wildlife Management Area, National Wildlife Refuge or Monument . . . holds the promise of exquisite beauty, reunion with your favorite butterfly species and, the potential to see NEW. New for the year, new for the county, new for the state, and, as in the Lower Rio Grande Valley, new for the United States!!

Our Zebra Heliconian butterfly here was at the Butterflies and Blooms in the Briar Patch Habitat I in Eatonton, Georgia. May 2017.

I study this beaut, on strong Tithonia (Mexican Sunflower) and Thank G-d that I am among the few, the fortunate, who head out to see such magnificent creatures.

Jeff

Levantine marbled white butterfly photographed by Jeffrey Zablow at Mt. Hermon, Israel

I finished reading Harry Zirlin’s article in the Summer 2017 issue of American Butterflies (NABA), and ‘Go Tell It On The Mountain’ by Zirlin is a tour of the US Parnassian butterflies. Funny that, I’ve not yet met an American parnassian butterfly, but did have that exciting meet-up with Parnassius mnemosyne syra on the peak of Mt. Hermon at the northern limits of Israel.

Harry brought back exciting memories of that day in June, and especially exciting was the moment when this beaut flew in and nectared on these ground-covering blooms!

This Israeli parnassian, distant cousin to the swallowtail butterflies, is a threatened species, and is found only on this 7,000 foot high mountain peak. It survives in an austere habitat, that also features still undiscovered land mines, from earlier battles on the mountain (Eran and I found one, before it found me!).

Jeff