Papilio glaucus | Mike Powell

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Posts Tagged ‘Papilio glaucus’

Bright Butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, Video, wildlife, tagged Canon 7D, Danaus plexippus, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, iPhone 11, Monarch, monarch butterfly, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 18-400mm, Woodbridge VA, YouTube on September 6, 2022| 2 Comments »

Throughout most of the summer I have seen very few large butterflies. Recently, though, I have been seeing them in greater numbers. I do not know if this is somehow linked to the blooming of the thistle plants, but I have spotted numerous butterflies in patches of this plant during recent visits to Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge.

Last week I spotted this beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) high atop a plant and I captured the first image with the sky in the background. The second image is linked to a short video I captured yesterday of a Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus). Most of the time I tend to associate Monarchs with milkweed, but this one sure seemed to be enjoying the thistle flower. Before long, it should begin its migration and perhaps this was part of the fueling process.

I am still experimenting with taking short videos with my iPhone and once again posted the video to YouTube. I have started a little channel on YouTube and have already posted a number of short clips, primarily of butterflies, bison, and butterflies, some of them with music tracks as accompaniment—I inserted some copyright free piano music, for example, in the Monarch video below. I have also experimented with some slightly longer compilations of clips with voiceover narration. Check out my channel Mike Powell if you are at all curious to see and hear what I have done so far.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail videos

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, Photography, Summer, Video, wildlife, tagged Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eurytides marcellus, iPhone 11, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Papilio glaucus, Woodbridge VA, YouTube, Zebra Swallowtail, Zebra Swallowtail butterfly on August 31, 2022| 12 Comments »

I am still learning to take videos with my iPhone 11. During my recent road trip, I convinced myself that it could be used with large subjects like bison and wild horses. I wasn’t sure, however, if it could be used effectively with the small subjects that I enjoy photographing.

Yesterday I visited Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, my favorite local wildlife photography spot, and kept my iPhone in my front pants pocket—normally I keep it in my backpack, which it is much less accessible. I was still using my Canon 7D with the Tamron 18-400mm zoom lens most of the time, but I made a conscious effort to look for subjects that I could also film with my iPhone.

I was astonished when I encountered a relatively cooperative Zebra Swallowtail butterfly (Eurytides marcellus). Normally these butterflies are extremely skittish and it is a challenge to get a photo of one, even with a long telephoto lens. How could I make a video of one when I would have to be really close to it?

The first video, which is hosted in YouTube, is a short clip I was able to capture of a Zebra Swallowtail. I added a piano track as accompaniment to enhance the experience.

The second video features an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) feeding on a colorful thistle plant. This video was a bit easier to capture, because the butterfly was perched much higher and was really preoccupied. I was therefore able to frame the video much better. Once again I added piano music to the video, using the copyright free music available in the YouTube Studio.

As I mentioned in a previous posting, I have chosen to embed YouTube links to the videos rather than place them directly in my blog, where they would count against the blog’s data limits. In order to have an image appear for this posting in the Reader section of WordPress, I have reprised an image of a Zebra Swallowtail that was in a May 2022 posting.

I am having fun playing with videos and think they give a slightly different perspective to my normal blog postings. What do you think? Do you enjoy these kinds of short video clips?

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterflies down low

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged bluet, Can on 50D, dark morph, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Houstonia caerulea, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, Quaker Ladies, Tamron 180mm on April 19, 2022| 5 Comments »

Recently I did a posting that featured Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus)—see Swallowtails in the forest. None of those butterflies seemed to be involved in searching for nectar and seemed content to take in minerals and water.

Last Friday I returned to that same location in Prince William County, Virginia and discovered that the butterflies were taking advantage of the few small flowers that were blooming. In the first photo, an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was nectaring on the small bluets (Houstonia caerulea) that are sometimes referred to as Quaker Ladies. The butterfly was so low to the ground that it looked like it was dragging its “tails.”

The butterfly in the second image is a dark morph Eastern Tiger Swallowtail female. Females of this species are dimorphic—there is a yellow variant that looks like the one in the first photo and a dark variant that looks like the one in the second image. The dark morph female was almost flat on the ground as she gathered nectar from a very short dandelion.

As more flowers begin to bloom, I am sure these butterflies will have a better selection of sources of nourishment, but the early arrivers have to make do with a really limited menu of choices.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtails in the forest

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm on April 15, 2022| 11 Comments »

On Monday I saw a surprisingly large number of Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) as I explored a stream in Prince William County, Virginia. I used to associate these butterflies with gardens, because that is where I had previously seen them most of the time. Over the past years, though, as I have searched for early spring dragonflies, I have gotten used to seeing these colorful butterflies alongside the streams, often congregating in groups to drink and extract minerals from puddles (see my blog post from last year called A kaleidoscope of butterflies for more information and a photo of this phenomenon).

These swallowtails seemed content to fly about continuously, searching and exploring, but rarely perching. When they did come to the ground, they often landed in patches of fallen leaves, as you can see in the second and third images. I was happy when one of the butterflies opted to perch on a fern, which made it a little easier for me to photograph it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterflies and thistle

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Great Spangled Fritillary, Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Papilio glaucus, Speyeria cybele, Tamron 180mm, thistle, Woodbridge VA on August 30, 2021| 21 Comments »

The thistles in bloom must have been absolutely irresistible to butterflies on Saturday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge. I was delighted to spot an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) and a Great Spangled Fritillary butterfly (Speyeria cybele) feeding almost side-by-side at a small patch of thistle plants.

I love the color combinations in these shots that contrast the warmer tones of the butterflies with the cooler colors of the flowers and the background. I also really like the texture of the thistles that appear to be hard and thorny, but are actually quite soft to the touch.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Simple Swallowtail Sunday

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge, Papilio glaucus, Simple Gifts, Tamron 180mm, Woodbridge VA on August 22, 2021| 19 Comments »

Some days I am guilty of overanalyzing my images, trying to figure out why I like or do not like them. Today, I decided to simply present this shot of a pretty Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted yesterday at Occoquan Bay National Wildlife Refuge as it fed on what looked to be some kind of sunflower.

I remember so well the words of the old Shaker song, “Simple Gifts” that I sang as part of a high school chorus:

‘Tis the gift to be simple, ’tis the gift to be free,
‘Tis the gift to come down where we ought to be;
And when we find ourselves in the place just right,
‘Twill be in the valley of love and delight.
When true simplicity is gained,
To bow and to bend we shan’t be ashamed;
to turn, turn, will be our delight.
Till by turning, turning we come round right.

Have a wonderful Sunday.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A few more butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Mexican Sunflower, Papilio glaucus, Papilio troilus, Spicebush Swallowtail, Spicebush Swallowtail butterfly, Tamron 180mm on August 16, 2021| 3 Comments »

It was definitely exciting to see my first Monarch butterflies of the season last Friday at Green Spring Gardens, but I was equally delighted to see some other beautiful butterflies that day. The one in the first photo is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on a flower that I later learned is a Mexican sunflower. I am pretty sure that the butterfly in the second image is a Spicebush Swallowtail (Papilio troilus), although the angle of this shot keeps me from being absolutely certain. I am not sure what kind of flower it is feeding on, but it sure was pretty.

Although I spend a lot of time in streams, fields, and marshes, I enjoy visiting gardens from time to time. It is stimulating to all of the senses to see all of the bright colors and smell the fragrant flowers. There were plenty of bees too and occasional forays into the flowers by goldfinches and hummingbirds. It was a good day.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterfly, Sky, and Joe Pye

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Eutrochium purpureum, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Joe-Pye weed, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on August 12, 2021| 14 Comments »

The Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge grows so high that I have to point my camera almost straight up to get a shot of the butterflies that seem to really enjoy this flowering plant. Although it is a somewhat uncomfortable shooting angle, it allows me to include the sky in some of my shots, as was the case with this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) on Monday.

I seem to be in an artistic mood recently. I noted this morning that this is the third consecutive posting in which the colors and shapes of my subjects have been of equal or greater importance as the subjects themselves. There is something about the first image especially that just seems so beautiful to me. I really like the way that the different elements in the image work together to create a harmonious whole.

In the second image, I deliberately violated one of the “rules” of photography and placed my primary subject in the center of the frame. Why? I wanted to emphasize the symmetry of the butterfly when it spread its wings. I think the photo works pretty well, though perhaps not quite as well as the first image, which has a slightly more dynamic feel to it.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Butterflies and milkweed

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Asclepias incarnata, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Epargyreus clarus, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Papilio troilus, Silver-spotted Skipper, Spicebush Swallowtail, swamp milkweed, Tamron 180mm on June 16, 2021| 12 Comments »

I was delighted on Monday to see that Swamp Milkweed (Asclepias incarnata) is now flowering at Huntley Meadows Park, a local marshland refuge. Butterflies really seem to like all varieties of milkweed and I was thrilled to photograph several different species that were feeding on these fabulous flowers, including a Spicebush Swallowtail(Papilio troilus) in the first image; an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) in the second image; and in the final image, a Silver-spotted Skipper (Epargyreus clarus), a smaller skipper that I cannot identify, and a bee.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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A kaleidoscope of butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, kaleidoscope of butterflies, Papilio glaucus, Prince William Forest Park, puddling, Tamron 180mm, Triangle VA on April 6, 2021| 37 Comments »

What do you call a group of butterflies? There are apparently many collective nouns for butterflies in English, but my absolute favorite is “kaleidoscope.” The word combination “kaleidoscope of butterflies” captures well for me the magical and fanciful nature of these colorful creatures.

I was excited yesterday when I spotted an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) fluttering about near a stream at Prince William Forest Park—it was my first “big” butterfly of the spring season. I was even more thrilled later in the day when a spotted this kaleidoscope of Eastern Tiger Swallowtails clustered together on a rocky ledge at water’s edge, engaged in what is often referred to as “puddling.” Many species of butterflies congregate on wet sand and mud to partake in “puddling”, drinking water and extracting minerals from damp puddles or even from animal droppings.

According to a posting by Westborough Land Trust, “When tiger swallowtails emerge from their chrysalises, one of the first things they do – especially if they’re male – is to head for a mud puddle. There they fill up on water and get minerals needed for reproduction. They suck water and dissolved minerals up through their long “tongue” or proboscis, which they also use to drink nectar.”

It is really early in the season and all of the butterflies were in perfect condition, with fully intact wings and vibrant colors. I am always energized to see the emergence of new life in the spring in plants and in all of the small and large creatures that I love to photograph.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail and Joe Pye

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Eutrochium purpureum, female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Joe-Pye weed, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on August 18, 2020| 13 Comments »

I love butterflies and am thrilled that I am finally beginning to see them more regularly after a slow start to this season. I spotted this beautiful female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) last week at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge perched high in a patch of what looks like Joe Pye weed (Eutrochium purpureum).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, female Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on August 4, 2020| 18 Comments »

Most folks who live in the Eastern part of the United States can probably identify an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) when they see one. Eastern Tiger Swallowtails are large and have a distinctive pattern of bright yellow and black on their wings. However, not all Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies are yellow—females come in two distinctly different variants, black and yellow.

The yellow morph looks a lot like a male, but with a conspicuous band of blue spots along the hindwings that the males do not have. The dark morph female has similar markings, but most of its body color is black, like the one below that I spotted last week at Green Spring Gardens. The perfect condition of its wings this late in the season suggests to me that this is a newly emerged butterfly.

So why do the females come in two colors? I read an interesting on-line article about this subject entitled “Why are you that color? The strange case of the dark phase tiger swallowtail.” The author speculates that the dark morph is an evolutionary attempt to mimic a similar-looking Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly that predators know is toxic, a practice known as Batesian mimicry. So, in theory the dark morph would have a better chance of survival. For unknown reasons, however, the males do not seem to be as attracted to the dark morph females, “These guys are apparently traditionalists and prefer the good ol’ yellow and black that their species is known for.” So the genes that might benefit species survival are not always passed on.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Tattered beauty

Posted in Art, Butterflies, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, beauty, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, perfection, Tamron 180mm on July 30, 2020| 15 Comments »

Many butterflies are looking a little tattered this late in the season, like this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted on Tuesday at Green Spring Gardens, but I still find their beauty to be breathtaking. True beauty, I would argue, is often to be found in imperfection, not in some superficial notion of perfection.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail in July

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on July 25, 2020| 33 Comments »

It seems like I have seen fewer butterflies this year than in previous years, so I was especially thrilled to spot this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) last week during a trip to Green Spring Gardens with my photography mentor Cindy Dyer. Normally by this time of the year I have seen lots of Monarchs and Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, but I have not seen a single Monarch yet and only a few swallowtails. This butterfly was the only large butterfly that I saw that day—all of the others that I spotted were the much smaller skipper butterflies.

Generally I prefer to have a natural background when photographing wild subjects, but that was not possible in this case. The blurred background is part of the welcome center of the gardens. The bands of color at the bottom of the image add some visual interest without being distracting, so I am not all that dissatisfied with the way the shot turned out.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Kaleidoscope of Butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, kaleidoscope of butterflies, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, Tamron 180mm on April 7, 2020| 18 Comments »

What do you call a group of butterflies? I have always been fascinated by the collective nouns that we use in English for groups of creatures. I was delighted to learn that one of the collective nouns used for butterflies is a kaleidoscope.

“A kaleidoscope of butterflies” seems to be the perfect descriptor for this group of beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted yesterday. They appeared to be engaged in a behavior known as “puddling,” during which the butterflies, most often the males, gather minerals and other nutrients from the soil or other organic material.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Translucent swallowtail

Posted in Butterflies, Nature, Photography, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm, Vienna VA on September 16, 2019| 13 Comments »

I was looking into the bright sun when I spotted this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) feeding on a nearby flower. Normally that is not an ideal situation for photography and often renders the subject as a silhouette. However, I adjusted my camera settings and was able to capture the translucency of the butterfly’s wings and the shape and color of the vegetation showing through from behind the wings.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtails and Joe Pye

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Eutrochium purpureum, Great Falls VA, Joe-Pye weed, Papilio glaucus, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on August 4, 2019| 5 Comments »

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) were definitely enjoying this patch of Joe Pye Weed (Eutrochium purpureum) when I spotted them last Saturday at Riverbend Park. The butterfly in the foreground is a dark morph female and I believe the one in the background is a male. One of the cool things about Eastern Tiger Swallowtails is that females come in two varieties, one with coloration close to that of the male and one with the dark colors that you see in the image below.

This image is a a pretty straightforward presentation of a fairly common subject, but there is something about the composition that I really like. Maybe it’s the contrasting colors or the overlapping shapes. Who knows? So often I like what I like without being able to articulate the precise reasons why.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail and milkweed

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Lorton VA, milkweed, Occoquan Regional Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on July 29, 2019| 8 Comments »

This seems to be the prime season for butterflies and I have been seeing lots of them this past week. I spotted this spectacular Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) as I was exploring Occoquan Regional Park last Thursday. It was attracted to a pink flowering plant that I think is some kind of milkweed—I am a whole lot more confident in identifying butterflies than plants.

I am happy with both shots, but must that I particularly like the background in the first image.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Cluster of butterflies

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, Prince William County VA, puddling, Tamron 180mm on July 25, 2019| 6 Comments »

Most of us associate butterflies with flowers, but they sometimes can be found on the sandy banks of creeks, like this cluster of male Eastern Tiger Swallowtails (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted earlier this month in Prince William County, Virginia.

I went looking for information about this behavior and learned the following on the thoughtco.com website:

“Butterflies get most of their nutrition from flower nectar. Though rich in sugar, nectar lacks some important nutrients the butterflies need for reproduction. For those, butterflies visit puddles. By sipping moisture from mud puddles, butterflies take in salts and minerals from the soil. This behavior is called puddling, and is mostly seen in male butterflies. That’s because males incorporate those extra salts and minerals into their sperm. When butterflies mate, the nutrients are transferred to the female through the spermatophore. These extra salts and minerals improve the viability of the female’s eggs, increasing the couple’s chances of passing on their genes to another generation.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail angles

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged angles, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Fort Belvoir VA, Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 180mm on July 5, 2019| 3 Comments »

Is the best image of a butterfly only one in which its wings are fully open so that you can see all of the beautiful colors and patterns? Generally that is the angle that most of us seek to shoot. This past Wednesday I was observing an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) at Jackson Miles Abbott Wetland Refuge when it struck me that the butterfly was “attacking” the flower from all kinds of different angles, even hanging upside down. Why shouldn’t I take the same approach with the butterfly (minus the hanging upside down part)?

I like the way in which the three shots below capture some of the activity of the butterfly and not merely its beauty. At times it seems like beauty and function are at odds with each other, that beauty is best captured in controlled settings like in a studio, where portraits are often taken.

I fully accept that the natural world in which I like to work is chaotic and out of my control, but in the midst of it I still find incredible beauty, a beauty that may be imperfect by some standards. I encourage you to look at your world from a different angle at least from time to time and you may be amazed by the way that a change of perspective can cause you to see things in a totally different way.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Defying gravity

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Canon 50D, defying gravity, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, Prince William Forest Park, Tamron 180mm, Triangle VA on April 19, 2019| 13 Comments »

When presented with a downward-facing flower, this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) was forced to choose an unusual angle of attack. Seeming defying gravity, this acrobatic butterfly hung upside down as it probed upwards earlier this week at Prince William Forest Park in Triangle, Virginia.

If this were an Olympic competition, I would give him a 10 for both his technical skills and overall artistic impression.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Springtime yellow

Posted in Birds, Butterflies, Nature, Photography, spring, wildlife, tagged Accotink Bay Wildlife Refuge, Canon 50D, Canon SX50, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Papilio glaucus, pine warbler, Setophaga pinus, Tamron 180mm on April 13, 2019| 14 Comments »

Do you associate certain colors with certain seasons? For me, yellow is definitely a springtime color. After months of winter weather dominated by shades of gray and a palette of faded colors, spring explodes with bright colors, with yellow daffodils popping up all over the place. Usually I have to wait a bit longer for yellow to pop up in the birds and insects that I enjoy photographing.

As I was exploring with my camera this week, I ran across bright yellow subjects in two very different locations. One, a Pine Warbler (Setophaga pinus) was quite appropriately perched high in a pine tree. The second was an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) that appeared to be probing the sand on the bank of a forest creek. I suspect that the butterfly needed the minerals and salts, although I confess to initially thinking that butterflies needed only nectar from flowers for sustenance (and there were definitely no flower in the area of that creek).

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Swallowtail and thistle

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on July 28, 2017| 6 Comments »

There is not denying that it is exciting to capture unusual moments, like a snake swallowing a catfish, or to photograph a new species, as I have done recently with dragonflies. For me, though, there is something equally satisfying about returning to a familiar location and observing ordinary subjects. It is a different kind of challenge to present the ordinary in an extraordinary way, in a way that makes people stop and realize that natural beauty surrounds them every single day.

Last week, butterflies were really active at Huntley Meadows Park. When I am in a garden, it is easier for me to guess where a butterfly will fly next, but in the wild, butterfly behavior is a little more unpredictable. When I noticed that a stand of what looks to be some kind of thistle was beginning to open, I hoped that the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that was flying about would be attracted to it. Eventually it flew to the thistle and I was able to capture this image.

Spectacular? No, not really. Beautiful? I’d say so. The image works for me, because it has just enough stopping power to cause views to recall how beautiful ordinary butterflies can be, to rekindle the childhood memories of being excited by butterflies, and to remember how exciting it was abandon caution and simply and joyfully chase after butterflies.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Swallowtail shadow

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Great Falls VA, Papilio glaucus, Riverbend Park, Tamron 180mm on July 21, 2017| 7 Comments »

When the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) that I was chasing at Riverbend Park flew into some vegetation, I thought that I had lost it. Suddenly and almost magically the butterfly’s shadow was revealed on a large leaf as it moved about. I was thrilled to be able to capture the swallowtail shadow as well as a small portion of the butterfly itself.

It’s usually best to shoot with the sun at your back, but it worked out well in this case for me to violate that “rule.”

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Butterflies and coneflowers

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Meadowlark Botanical Gardens, Papilio glaucus, skipper, Tamron 180mm, Vienna VA on July 10, 2017| 8 Comments »

Brightly-colored flowers and butterflies—-what a wonderful combination for a summer’s day. I spotted these beauties this past weekend at Meadowlark Botanical Gardens in Vienna, Virginia.

The first shot features a little skipper butterfly on a spectacular, orange-red coneflower. The other two shots highlight the beauty of an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) in a patch of the more frequently observed purple coneflowers.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Sideward swallowtail

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm telephoto on September 6, 2016| 2 Comments »

I’ll often try to get shots of butterflies with their wings wide open, but when they turn sideward, you can sometimes get an equally spectacular view of them slowly sipping nectar. I can’t identify the flower, but the butterfly definitely is an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that I chased about this past weekend at Green Spring Gardens.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Perfect butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on September 5, 2016| 5 Comments »

Butterflies are always beautiful no matter what their condition, but there is something really special about seeing a perfect specimen with its wings wide open, like this Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) that I spotted this past weekend at Green Spring Gardens.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved

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Butterfly and Joe Pye

Posted in Butterflies, Flowers, Insects, Nature, Photography, Summer, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Eutrochium, Huntley Meadows Park, Joe-Pye weed, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on August 9, 2016| 1 Comment »

Hot, humid summer days may be a little tough on us, but butterflies seem to love them. I captured this shot of a spectacular Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) this past weekend at Huntley Meadows Park as it sipped nectar from what I think is Joe-Pye weed (g. Eutrochium). (I am a bit uncertain about the plant identification and wonder if it might instead be a kind of milkweed, but “Joe Pye” rhymes with butterfly and sounds cooler, so I’ll go with that as a possible identification.)

Unlike many butterflies that I see at this time of the year whose wings are tattered and torn, this butterfly seemed to be in perfect condition. The sun was shining brightly when I took these shots and I was really afraid of blowing out the highlights of this lightly-c0lored butterfly. I switched the metering on my camera to spot metering and was able to get a good exposure of the butterfly and the background went really dark, adding a bit of drama to the images.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Eastern Tiger Swallowtails on Buttonbush

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, tagged Alexandria VA, Buttonbush, Canon 50D, Cephalanthus occidentalis, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on August 5, 2016| 18 Comments »

Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterflies (Papilio glaucus) were really busy on the buttonbushes (Cephalanthus occidentalis) at Huntley Meadows Park recently, including what looks to be a dark morph female. Females of this species are dimorphic—there are both yellow morphs and dark morphs—but males are only yellow.

If you look closely at the second image you’ll see that I managed to capture a “bonus bug.” a bee that is also feeding on the buttonbush. My photography mentor likes to use the term “bonus bug” to refer to insects in our photos whose presence was unknown at the time the photos were taken.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Real world creature

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Macro Photography, Nature, Photography, Summer, wildlife, tagged Alexandria VA, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, green spring gardens, Papilio glaucus on July 18, 2016| 6 Comments »

Some folks are really into chasing imaginary creatures with their cellphones. I prefer to chase living creatures with my camera and captured this image of a beautiful Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) yesterday as it was feeding at Green Spring Gardens, a county-run historic garden in Northern Virginia.

The butterfly gave me multiple opportunities to get shots as it flew around a small area of the gardens, but it rarely gave me an obstructed view. Often it was partially buried in the flowers or turned away from me at an angle. When I took this shot, the butterfly had opened its wings and offered me a rare look at its body as well as its amazingly long proboscis.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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Early spring butterfly

Posted in Butterflies, Insects, Nature, Photography, spring, tagged Alexandria VA, Canon 50D, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail, Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly, Huntley Meadows Park, Papilio glaucus, Tamron 150-600mm on March 30, 2016| 3 Comments »

Spring has definitely arrived in our area, but I was still quite surprised this past Saturday to see an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly (Papilio glaucus) at Huntley Meadows Park—it seems so early for butterflies like this.

I chased after the butterfly several times, to the extent that you can chase something while on a boardwalk, but each time the butterfly flew away. I had more or less reconciled myself to the likelihood that I was unlikely probably not going to get a shot of this early spring butterfly when I caught sight of it again.

The butterfly landed in a muddy open area where a flock of Canada Geese had previously been feeding. There were no flowers around from which to get nectar, so the butterfly resorted to an organic source of nutrients.

This is definitely not the prettiest shot of a butterfly that I have ever taken, but it’s the first butterfly that I have photographed this season. Like the butterfly in the photo, I am content to settle for what I can find, hopeful that better things are to come as we move deeper into spring.

© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.

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