We have liftoff!

Black swallowtail lifts off after a nectar snack in the wildflower garden.

Silent Sunday

Me and my shadow

While pausing for a moment on a weekend walkabout, a daredevil butterfly began flying tight circles around me at knee level. Several mad minutes passed as I tried to follow his flight round and round and round. Never could catch the little booger, but settled for his shadow.

Remnants of autumn

Yellow butterfly rests on a fallen oak leaf.

Last o the brilliant blackgum leaves

Afternoon sun casting long shadows.

Pinpoints of light show where insects have chewed holes in the leaves.

Gotcha!

Butterflies and dragonflies in flight can be mesmerizing.  However, their erratic flight styles can drive you crazy when trying to capture them in pixels, whether panning with a real viewfinder or even worse, trying to pan using a digital viewfinder and its fraction-of-a-second lag (and no drive or burst function).

Well, a little spray and pray with the shutter yielded my favorite shot of the morning as this red-spotted purple moved through the canopy of the valley forest.

TAKING FLIGHT – Red-spotted purple flits among trees in the valley forest.

The nectar games

When the competition at the feeder was too rough, some hummingbirds opted to find nectar in the wildflowers below. The competition there was pretty good too — what with all those butterflies, bees and other pollinators. Here, a hummingbird goes for what must be the juiciest flower in the garden, since the butterfly was already there.

Voila!

A red-spotted purple emerges from its chrysalis July 22, a week after the photo on the left was taken. What a treat to catch this event just before having to start the morning commute.

Before and after. 

Grounded

This red-spotted purple probably escaped a predator at the cost of a wing and the ability to escape again. Though grounded, he continued to spread his wings in the sunshine.

STILL BEAUTIFUL – Red-spotted purple butterfly warms himself on the roadway.

Things you didn’t know you had

The downtime between Christmas and New Year provides temporal space to start cleaning those things that may not merit daily attention, but languish in that to-do list priority category just above “limbo” or “someday.” Today it was a handful of glassware reserved for celebratory use and a compact flash card that somehow found a hiding place in the LowePro backpack.  Among the findings from the latter:

Supermoon framed by pine trees. Taken July 12, 2014.

Indigo bunting preening. Taken July 13, 2014.

Butterfly hanging on the underside of an azalea branch outside the office window.

 

 

Weekly photo challenge: On the move

This week’s challenge is On the Move. Here’s what’s been moving in the trees.

BUZZIN’ — Honey bee buzzing peach blossoms in April. Faster than my shutter, the motion blur is all his.

IN FLIGHT – Yellow swallowtail zooms through the Ouachita woods. These big-winged creatures can really speed. Hard to pan and follow.

 

 

 

Other movement you might like:

• Motor racing — http://icezine.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/on-the-move-weekly-photo-challenge/
• Up and Down – http://mittenedhands.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/up-and-down/
• Multimodal motion – http://sfchapman.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/weekly-photo-challenge-on-the-move/
• Hooves, helmets and dust – http://annarashbrook.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/weekly-photo-challenge-on-the-move/
• Old school donkey cart – http://2fehah.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/weekly-photo-challenge-on-the-move/
• Waterbird and turtle train – http://tomwarrenphoto.wordpress.com/2014/05/09/on-the-move-2/
• Kicking up a wake in NY harbor – http://windagainstcurrent.com/2014/05/09/weekly-photo-challenge-on-the-move/

And love the gondolas – http://lucidgypsy.files.wordpress.com/2014/05/move1a.jpg