Look Underneath

 

Here's an eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly with its wings spread. A lovely sight.

This is the moment to zoom in for a look under the wings at the butterfly’s body. Although the wings usually get all the praise, a butterfly's body is worth a look.

See. Snazzy stripes! Although humans don’t usually much like insect details, this might be an exception. Pretty, right? Click to enlarge. 

And it's not just tiger swallowtails. This spicebush swallowtail has  polka dots under there!

And the ever popular monarch? Polka dots again. I have a pair of pajamas like that.

So next time you are admiring a butterfly’s lovely wings — take a peek underneath. Here’s a black swallowtail — more polka dots.

Butterfly Season

I spotted a lot of big butterflies this week. Like this monarch.

This eastern tiger swallowtail.

A couple of spicebush swallowtails. Click to enlarge.

And a variegated fritillary -- a name I like to say out loud.

We focus on the beauty of butterfly wings, of course, but their bodies are often lovely, too. Check out the polka dots on the monarch.

And this!

Butterfly Wing Kaleidoscopes

Take a cold rainy day, a few pictures of butterflies, and Photoshop. Isolate, duplicate, cut, paste, flip, and before you know it you have a collection of beautiful butterfly wing kaleidoscopic images. Well, I do. Here's one. Click to enlarge.

This one was made from bits of monarch and tiger swallowtail wings and a purple flower that made it into the photo.

A relatively simple image like this...

Can be repeated to make this. Pretty, isn't it?

This simple one, repeated, makes...

This! Like rich brocaded fabric.

Here are some of my butterfly models. The ubiquitous cabbage white, Pieris rapae.

The lovely Eastern tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus.

And this acrobatic upside-down Red-spotted purple, Limenitis arthemis.

And The Winner Is...

I played a game of creature contest yesterday. Here are the rules: take a walk in a park, photograph everything interesting, choose a favorite. The eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly above is the winner. Ta Da! Click to enlarge.

Congratulations eastern tiger swallowtail! See that band of blue spots? It identifies this one as a female.

This perky little summer azure butterfly is the runner up, ready to step in and fulfill the duties of winner if the tiger swallowtail is unable to do so. Congratulations summer azure!

Blueberry Season

The heat and sunshine have been intense these past few weeks but that's not all bad. Some of it went into ripening New Jersey's blueberry crop. They are ready!

I went blueberry picking this week on a farm in Hammonton, New Jersey; that's the blueberry capital of the world. Click the photos to enlarge.

I came back with 12 pints of blueberries for which I paid $1.66 each.

I got a fine day out, a good deal, exercise, and...

a picnic beside Hammonton Creek, pictured here. It was lovely.

When I got home, I made blueberry jam. I'm going to try to save some until January. It is summer in a jar. 

Delicious.

The hot sunny days are also good for butterfly spotting. Here are some that I saw on berry picking day. A cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae.

A spicebush swallowtail, Papilio troilus.

A tiger swallowtail, Papilio glaucus.

And a buckeye, Junonia coenia.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

It is easy to mistake this tiny caterpillar for a dried up bit of bird droppings. Clever disguise! It helps the little guy get through the treacherous early stages of caterpillar life when many are snatched up and eaten by birds.

A closer look reveals the caterpillar behind the disguise. This one is feasting on a lilac leaf. Eventually it will grow into the beautiful eastern tiger swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus.

This one is a female -- the males have a few small spots of blue where she has those extensive blue patches on her hind wings. Take a close look and you will see that her wing edges are damaged; she may have escaped a bird  attack, or been tossed by rough winds.  As butterflies age their wings get worn and tattered.

Eastern tiger swallowtail butterflies sip nectar from a variety of flowers, including wild cherry and lilac blossoms. They don't mind urbanization so we see them in city parks and yards, and sometimes flying incongruously through the concrete canyons. This one was visiting the Shakespeare Garden in Manhattan's Central Park.