May 21: Return from the island

smooth crossing
a white butterfly
four miles out to sea

May 5: Photos

freeing up memory

twenty views

of that one butterfly

October 7: Painted Ladies

Afternoon spent trying

to glimpse the undersides

of Painted Ladies

September 23: Butterflies

Searching for Question Marks--

existential dilemma

in the garden.

 

September 17: Fog

Fogbound island.

Watching painted ladies sip

at the zinnias.

 

 

September 16: Chrysalis

On the slop bucket

perfect chrysalis

embellished with gold leaf

 

 

July 30: Painted Ladies

Morning meditation:

Watching butterflies shift

among coneflowers.

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July 2: Chasing butterflies

Morning walk.

Butterfly flits off

each time the camera's focused.

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April 26: In the museum

Butterfly garden--

trying to reassure

a fearful little boy.

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July 25: Meditation

Among the flowers

bees and a skipper.

No politics tonight, dear.

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July 11: Morning walk up the mountain

walking side-by-side
scent of pine needles in sun
small blue butterfly

July 7: Distracted

Distracted at the meeting
by a butterfly.
I didn't chase it.

November 29: Make a wish

Field of milkweed--

wishing on each drifting seed

for the Monarchs' return.

 

 

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September 18: Monhegan: Butterflies

Butterflies lift off

of every patch of flowers--

yes, I remember.

 

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July 17: Eagle Hill Institute, Shadbush berries

Tromping around a sunny field looking for skippers and other butterflies this afternoon, we came across several fruit-laden shadbushes. I had never before tried this ambrosial fruit. Now I'll be fighting off the waxwings whenever I see one.

Our instructor Bryan Pfeiffer shows us how it's done

The world offers this up:

sun-ripened shad berries,

azures blue as sky.

Cherry Gall Azure

 

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July 16: Eagle Hill Institute, Bogs

Today we took field trips to Jonesport Heath and Harrington Heath, two sphagnum bogs that feature a couple of uncommon butterfly species: Crowberry Blue (host plant Black Crowberry Empitrum nigram) and Bog Copper (host plant Small Cranberry Vaccinium oxycoccos, not to be confused with Oxycodone).

Plebejus idas empetri

Lycaena epixanthe

I love bogs and the stunted, specialized plants that such an extreme habitat produces: insectivorous plants like sundew and pitcher plants, miniature spruce and tamarack, cotton grass, cranberries, crowberries, and cloudberries, and delicate, unexpected orchids like this Grass Pink:

Calopogon tuberosus

Bog in summer--

empty pitchers waiting to fill,

sparrow's July trill.

 

 

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July 13: Eagle Hill Institute, Field Work

Swinging my net

I decapitate clover

but not the butterfly

Great Spangled Fritillary (I didn't catch this one)

 

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July 12: Eagle Hill Institute, Day One

Spending a week studying butterflies and moths at Eagle Hill Institute in Steuben, Maine. The first night we stayed up late photographing moths at UV lights. Instructor Hugh McGuinness says we had over 150 species, some of them startlingly beautiful when examined up close.

 

moths at the light

each one a Rorschack test

an artwork briefly hanging

Green Arches: Anaplectoides prasina

Cherry Scallop Shell: Rheumaptera prunivorata

 

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July 5: Hike

At our feet on the trail:

one butterfly wing,

evidence of past drama.

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September 23: Butterflies everywhere

Admiring the asters

I'm a Disney princess

surrounded by Monarchs.

 

 

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