Butterflies

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Butterflies

Recently Shelley and I had an appointment in the area so we decided to stop at the Butterfly Gardens. It's been a while since we'd been and I always enjoy photographing the butterflies. I must admit I was a bit spoiled by Costa Rica butterflies (and moths) last year. Some of the butterflies were the same, but the difference is that there they were native. It was also a good chance to try out a new camera lens.

I think this is an Autumn Leaf - an appropriate name.

Of course, just because there are lots of butterflies in a small area, it doesn't mean they sit still to be photographed. Some of them never seemed to settle. These Common Palmfly (I think) weren't very colorful but they were cooperative subjects.

The Giant Owl Butterflies also tend to perch, although not always in the most convenient spots! In addition to the large "eye" they have quite elaborate patterns on their wings.

Tiger Longwings are one of the ones I saw in Costa Rica.

A few posed with their wings open.

The little pond makes a good background.

The Butterfly Garden also has an "Insectarium" with a variety of exotic insects.

At first it was hard to tell what was in this exhibit. But once you spotted the leaf insects there were lots of them. Amazing camouflage.

Mantises are one of my favorite insects.

This Jungle Nymph was huge! They get over 6 inches long and are one of the heaviest insects.

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Painted Lady

I came across this Painted Lady butterfly at the Gardens at HCP. It was late in the season but there were still flowers to feed on. Painted Ladies are the most widespread butterflies in the world, found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. They make long range migrations like monarchs. In most years, Painted Ladies move north out of the deserts of northern Mexico and the southwestern U.S. to temporarily colonize the United States and Canada.

For a change it didn't take off immediately, perhaps more sluggish with the cooler weather. Or perhaps wanting to take advantage of the feeding site. It also helped I was using a telephoto lens so I didn't need to get too close.

These photos are all of the same individual, the only one I saw.

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Road Trip Wrapup

Better late than never, I finally finished going through my photos from our last road trip. (Sorry, it's a long post, I couldn't get motivated to split it up.) After our week at Five Springs (with a break in Sheridan) we stopped in Cody to clean up. We stayed at the Chamberlin Inn, another historic hotel. (Hemingway stayed there) It's just a block off the main street with a nice garden in the back.

The next day we drove through Yellowstone and Teton National Parks. On our way through Yellowstone we ran into a large group of cars and people stopped beside the road. We couldn't tell what they were looking at but there was a place to pull off so we stopped. It turned out to be a grizzly bear and two cubs, on a hillside quite far from the road. I pulled out my longest telephoto and took lots of photos, although it was tricky taking photos through the trees, and I was hand holding when I really needed a tripod for such a long lens. So the shots aren't great, but they're the first I have of a wild grizzly. I had to wonder at the people trying to take photos with their phones. The bears would be tiny dots.

It's been a while since we've driven by the Tetons. It seems (is!) a long time ago when we climbed Grand Teton (the high point in the photo below).

At the other end of the size/rarity spectrum from the grizzlies, I like this ground squirrel with a mouthful of flowers.

At our next campsite, just past Jackson, we had a friendly squirrel come looking for handouts.

I followed this butterfly through the forest. It had a habit of pausing briefly on tree trunks so I eventually got some photos of it.

The next day we were passing by Idaho Falls and noticed they had a zoo so we stopped. It wasn't very big but I always enjoy seeing the animals. (despite the debatable ethics of zoos) It's always hit or miss whether zoos work out for photographs. Too many bars and mesh and dirty windows and uncooperative subjects. But occasionally it works out.

Our next stop was Craters of the Moon National Monument. We were a little worried that the campground might be full since it was a weekend. But there was a huge windstorm and most of the people with tents were leaving. I sometimes feel a bit guilty about having our van instead of tenting, but it is nice to escape the weather. People ask us how we manage in our tiny van, but to us it's a big step up from tenting. Whereas people with huge fancy RV's and Sprinter vans still feel it's a step down from their house. Despite (or because of) the windstorm, there was a colorful sunset.

The next morning the wind had died down and I ran the North Crater trail out and back. Later in the day it's a busy trail, but first thing I didn't see a single other person. It's only 8 km but 350 m (1100 ft) of elevation gain. Our next stop was at an obscure campground on the Snake River just past Boise. We never would have found these places before Google Maps. $10 per night and the campground was almost empty :-) A wild turkey with chicks went by, and several California Quail. The occasional milkweed plants were a big hit with the insects. I looked for Monarch caterpillars, but no luck.

The next day we stopped to eat lunch in Willamina. We were sitting in the park by the pond when we heard a weird noise. I thought it might be a bullfrog. Sure enough, just a few feet away there was a big fat bullfrog. It disappeared when we started taking photos but I spotted it again a bit later. American Bullfrogs aren't native but they've spread widely, partly because people introduced them in order to eat them. Nowadays, frog's legs aren't as popular and the bullfrogs have multiplied and eat anything and everything they can catch and stuff in their big mouths. What goes around comes around.

There were also quite a few of these Eight-spotted Skimmers, a large striking dragonfly.

Back at the coast we headed for Cape Lookout State Park. We were a bit surprised to find the campground was full. Despite the signs we stopped at the entrance booth and it turned out there was one yurt left. We were happy not to be searching for somewhere else at the end of a day of driving. I was surprised to see this Cedar Waxwing in the campground. In Saskatoon I thought of them as winter birds.

This White-crowned sparrow posed nicely in the evening light.

Our lunch spot the next day yielded a common loon and a crab spider that Shelley spotted.

Our last night we stayed at a campground near Olympia. The only attraction was that there was a nature area nearby with turtles and ducks and reflections.

Our last day we stopped at the Tacoma Zoo since we hadn't been there for a while and their new aquarium was finally open.

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