August

A quiet afternoon with reflections in the New Jersey pine barrens. 

                                              

"The quiet August noon has come, 

A slumberous silence fills the sky, 

The fields are still, the woods are dumb, 

In glassy sleep the waters lie."  

                                  from A Summer Ramble by William Cullen Bryant

 

Last call for summer butterflies like this cabbage white. August is winding down. Autumn leaves are coming soon. Watch this spot. Click to enlarge.

Mid-August

"The quiet August noon has come, 

A slumberous silence fills the sky, 

The fields are still, the woods are dumb, 

In glassy sleep the waters lie."  

   from A Summer Ramble by Wiilliam Cullen Bryant

The weather is too hot and humid for me right now, but the insects don't mind -- like this cabbage white butterfly hard at work in the noon day sun. Click to enlarge.

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.

June

A cabbage white butterfly on vetch flowers. Click to enlarge. 

I am appreciating June right now -- the hot sun, cool shade, little breezes, and scents of honeysuckle and privet. This butterfly reminded me of this line from Pablo Neruda's 100 Love Sonnets:

Green was the silence, wet was the light, the month 

of June trembled like a butterfly. 

23 Days Until Spring

In 2012 I spotted this butterfly in New York City in March. Click on the photo above to enlarge it and see if you can spot the butterfly. Its color and shape matches almost exactly the pale petals of the flower so I almost missed it.

Yet there it was. It was my first butterfly sighting of 2012 and more dramatic than usual.

Just wanted to point out that we had a day with undeniably summery temperatures in the Northeast this week, and there are just over three weeks until official Spring. It is not too early to begin to hope for the first butterflies of 2018.

First Butterflies!

Click to enlarge this picture, and then look at the flower petals. One of them has antennae! It's a resting cabbage white butterfly, also called a small white, Pieris rapae.  

 I saw a pair of cabbage white butterflies flying among spring flowers on the first day of spring this week. They are the first butterflies I've seen this year.

Cabbage whites are common in Europe, Asia, and northern Africa. They were introduced to North America in the mid 1800s, and have flourished here to become one of our most common butterflies. Their little green caterpillars are big agricultural pests on crops like broccoli, mustard, kale, horseradish, cauliflower, lettuce, and cabbage. The caterpillars cause so much damage that they have their own name -- imported cabbageworms. They also feed on invasive weeds like garlic mustard, so they thrive in disturbed urban habitats like where I live in Brooklyn Heights in New York City.

The cabbage white butterfly has a wingspan of about two inches. The close-up shot below shows a butterfly so pale that its diagnostic wing markings can barely be seen; it has one black dot in the center of each forewing, identifying it as a male, and black wing tips. Females have two dots on the forewing. Individuals that emerge early in the season are lightly marked like this one. Later in the season, individuals will have darker markings.

The sighting reminded me of this poem by the Russian writer, Iasyr Shivaza. These butterflies will not live until autumn.

White Butterfly

The sun is shining on a white butterfly,

You are so happy.

You are playing with a golden ray.

Riding the spring wind. 

Now you are up in the sky,

Reaching towards the white clouds. 

Now you are in the garden,

Sniffing the fresh flowers.

In selecting the flowers, I see,

Your ambition is high. 

The whole garden is yours, 

Alight wherever you like. 

You are playing with a red flower,

Which is like the sun. 

The chrysanthemums are waiting for you,

And the snow-white peonies...

You are like spring, seeking only

The flowers in full bloom. 

But you could never, oh butterfly, 

Alight upon a golden leaf.