My Visitor..

Yesterday as I went out on the front porch to see if any of the daffodils had bloomed, a strange looking butterfly was in the area flying and landing from spot to spot. I didn't go back in and get the camera so the photo you see here came from the internet after I identified it. 

I haven't seen one of these before to my recollection. It is called a "Mourning Cloak" representing the cloak worn by people who mourn the loss of a loved one. This type of butterfly is a symbol of "mourning" the death of a loved one. Well, that fits...doesn't it?

Monarch Butterfly #2

This one emerged yesterday and it finally flew away this morning. The process of developing from a large caterpillar to a very small chrysalis to this beautiful winged insect is always a miracle for me to watch happen. It is somewhat like waiting for a baby to be born and then seeing the baby alive and well. The pictures were taken after I placed it on the seedum blossom. It had attached itself to form the chrysalis to the edge of a plastic jar. It had nothing to cling to after emerging so I transferred it when still tiny but out of its shell. It took overnight for it to dry out enough to fly away. What a wonder! These pictures were all taken yesterday.

please click on image to view larger

Emergence

In an earlier story I showed you my find of a Monarch caterpillar and how it formed its chrysalis in my jar, on a milkweed leaf. I took the leaf and put it over the top of the jar and then put an elastic band around the opening to hold it in place while it developed, hanging over the opening.  I found it on August 4 and it developed into its pupa stage on August 9. Today it emerged. I didn't want it to get stuck in the jar so, as it was dropping out of its shell, I took the stiff and dried-out leaf and pinned it with a clothespin to the loop in my laundry line so it could dry before flying away. It took 2 hours to spread its wings before leaving. Everything went off with out a problem at all and that was my hope. As I was watching it spread its wings while on the leaf, it suddenly took off. I was caught unaware and didn't get the shot of its flight high in the sky as it headed to a destination far far away! It was a wonderful feeling to see it soar.

7:47 AM August 23, 2017

 

9:41 AM August 23, 2017

please click on image to view larger

Wonders will never cease...

Link to more information

Something New Every Day

I just love to ride and try to find something different to photograph around the lake, close to home. Today it is a very different butterfly and a couple of new blossoming flowers growing deep in the woods near the road. I don't even have to step out to catch the shots and I love the point and shoot feature!

This one is the Meadow Spangled Fritillary butterfly

  please click on image to view larger  

Mother Nature's Marvel

Yesterday my caterpillar attached itself to the underside of one of the Milkweed leaves in its jar and went into the "J" shape. This morning it already has formed into a chrysalis. I now wait for about 10 days to two weeks according to internet information and it should emerge into a Monarch butterfly! To me this is one of Mother Nature's millions of marvels.

I apologize for the photos not being very good but feel happy that I captured them at all! I was too afraid of harming and interfering with its metamorphosis.

AUGUST 4

AUGUST 8

AUGUST 9

     Lifecycle Link

There are much better photographs at the link above. Just click on it.

My Butterfly

During the quiet peace on the dirt road, I spent time with this lovely butterfly. Here are just a few of the shots I took as it flew and landed numerous times - all within my view.  A link to more information is posted below in case you would like to learn more. 

please click on image to view details

Below is the link to learn all about the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. I was very amazed to find so much about this and also happy that we have Joe Pye Weed and Milk Thistle all around here that feeds this beautiful insect.

https://www.butterfliesandmoths.org/species/Papilio-glaucus

Blooms, Butterflies and Baby

As the weather becomes warmer Mother Nature is on the move. The burgundy bearded iris by the porch are in bud and the ones down on the beachfront are really large this year. I look forward to their beauty. These are old ones, often called flags, most likely started as rhizomes from my parent's home and planted here many years ago. Do you know that Iris is the name for the Greek Goddess of the rainbow?

Photo taken May 26, 2017

Photo taken May 30, 2016

I'm also starting to see various butterflies here. This one seemed to be weak and might have just hatched but soon flew away. It is an Appalachian tiger swallowtail. 

And, today is my first child's birthday. She is 61 and was brought home to a little OLD one room chinked log cabin on the top of a hill in rural North New Jersey. I had to push her in her carriage along with the laundry, down the hill to the landlady's home to use the washer and then go back up to hang diapers and other things out on a long pulley clothesline.  She didn't have a crib. We had a nice carriage and we had a "car bed" for travel. We also had a bathinett for changing and bathing. I haven't had the ambition to scan some of those old photos but the memories remain very clearly for me. The following photos are from the internet and are just like what I had in 1956.

Oh and yes, I still have some of these diaper pins saved.

please click on image to view larger

Now What?

I'm bored already. Need to really find something that grabs me more. The butterfly didn't do it. This was an inexpensive project for sure. Used ONLY paper, scissors and glue plus a couple of buttons that were on hand. Time was the only cost. Two-morning venture. 

Suggestions???

please click on image to see 3-D better

Camera Critters #3

Hundreds and hundreds of these were eating the leaves, no, I should say gobbling the leaves, on a passion flower vine. I took this photo in a campground and I noticed them when I went back a second time after taking a photograph of the flower a few days earlier.  

I kept it in a jar, feeding it more leaves I plucked from the vine almost daily for over a week. Finally, I had to release it because we were leaving to return home. 

I have now learned that it is a larvae of the fritillary butterfly.  The passion flower vine is one of several possible host plants for the fritillary butterflies. 

Here is a picture (not taken by me) of this beautiful butterfly.

Here is a photograph I took, not knowing what kind of butterfly it was. There were thousands flying over the ocean beaches!  Eureka!

http://bluffareadaily.blogspot.com/