Category: thoughts

Return to Winter

I have been capturing images of wildflowers for nearly a month now and had all but given up on posting any winter images for this past winter season. But low and behold here we are on April 20 and we are expecting a dusting of light snow overnight and freezing temperatures. Spring in Indiana lol !!

So now I have the opportunity share some images from this past February when we were having a pretty tough stretch of winter. I captured these as we were getting a heavy snow one evening here in Madison Indiana. A fresh snow at night is so beautiful and it makes everything it covers so magical and serene !!

Tonight’s snow should be nothing like that and I can get back to the business of photographing wildflowers here in Southern Indiana fairly quickly

Monarchs and their journey home

There is nothing more beautiful than warm summer evening light, especially when it bathes the Monarchs and the wildflowers that they love to nectar on this time of the year . The butterflies are winding down now here in Madison Indiana but the Monarchs are just gearing up for their incredible journey south.

It’s hard to believe that these delicate translucent wings will carry some of these little miracles of nature three thousand miles to the mountains of central Mexico from the fields of Southern Indiana. It is truly amazing that these monarchs know the way to the overwintering sites even though this migrating generation has never before been to Mexico.

Soon the Goldenrod will bloom and help nourish them for their long epic flight back to the mountains of Mexico.

Hope you enjoy my images of butterflies especially the Monarch and hopefully we can help conserve this beauitufl species !!

Monarch Frenzy

Monarch on Goldenrod
Monarch on Goldenrod
Monarch on Goldenrod

Frenzy is the only word I can use to describe what I have been seeing here in Madison Indiana when it comes to Monarch behavior the last couple evenings. And I think this is as close as I may ever come to witnessing a full fledged Monarch roost as I may ever come to see as well.

I work at King’s Daughters’ Health a hospital based in Southern Indiana near Madison. The hospital sits on twenty two acres of land that right now is covered in Goldenrod and White Aster. We are also right in the middle of the annual Monarch migration and with this years brood of butterflies being one of the best, some say in the last twenty years, it has definitely made for a frenzy of activity right at my own workplace!

The last two nights I have observed hundreds of these beautiful creatures and they have been so accommodating to my presence that I have been able to capture many images of these majestic little jewels, probably more than in any other year of photographing them, all in two evenings!

I don’t know how long this will last the weather tonight turned windy and wet and while leaving work I did not see nearly as many gliding over the fields like I had seen in the last couple days. Hopefully the weather will settle and maybe if I am lucky I will get a couple more shots at this amazing spectacle before they continue on their migration south to central Mexico.

There are many times in life’s journey you come across times that make such an impression on you that you carry them with you the rest of your life and I believe this may be one of those times. Some people may scoff at this but when you spend as much time as I have pursuing these and all other butterflies the last few years it’s these times that make it all worth while!

Hope you enjoy the images and maybe someday you will be able to witness a moment like this as well!

Love Butterfly Style

Cloudless Sulphurs
Silvery Checkerspot
Viceroy

Maybe I am showing my age but I thought the title from that show from the seventies “Love American Style” was an appropriate rip off title for tonight’s post. It wasn’t exactly Emmy award material but it had a catchy theme song and started the “Happy Days” and “Mork & Mindy” series.

OK that wasn’t exactly that funny or informative so moving on to the real reason I am here and that’s to share some images of the real love making inside the butterfly world.

I captured these wonderful butterflies in compromising situations this past summer in the Madison Indiana area. I really tried to give them their privacy but in the interest of nature photography I had to go against my best judgement and record the deed.

In my defense they really never tried to cover themselves up and seemed to enjoy their exhibitionist performance. Well maybe they didn’t enjoy the exhibition part and only cared for the mating part.

Now this whole post has become a train wreck and maybe I should just stick to posting images of butterflies and stay way from trying to make a humorous blog post. So here we have the Cloudless Sulphurs, Silvery Checkerspots and Viceroys doing what they do best making baby butterflies or should I say baby caterpillars, so they can carry on the great cycle of life these beautiful creatures are traveling.

Thanks for putting up with so called humor and hope yo enjoy the images!!