Butterfly & cicada walk and goat rescue

Today I went to Hillsborough for the dedication of the Pollinator Garden by the local beekeeping club. So I walked about a bit, the rain finally quit for now. First I dropped in on the Occoneechee State Preserve to look for dragonflies. Nothing special in dragonflies as they reworked(drained and installed new dams) the ponds a few years ago and recovery is not fully happened yet.  As I was walking a spotted an Eastern Pine Elfin on an ox-eyed daisy, might have been a preserve record, I'm not sure.

Left the preserve and headed the long way home, caught the Durham Garden Center before closing and picked up two dwarf spiderworts. 'Danielle' is a dwarf white spiderwort and 'Marielle' is a dwarf sky blue spiderwort. Pretty excited about getting a white spiderwort!

Drove out on Cole Mill Rd and saw a cicada cross the road at the Eno River State Park Cole Mill Access. I'd been wanting to walk the power line trail to look for butterflies it is one of my favorite butterfly watching spots. Before I got out of the car I heard waves of cicadas calling in the woods. Been wanting to take in a cicada concert for weeks. The next concert here will be in 13 years once these are done.

All these photos were taken with my Canon G11 point and shoot, left the big gun camera at home. Above is a butterfly orgy, well almost. There were 2 female Silvery Checkerspots with 3 males wanting to breed with them. If you look closely you can see all 5 butterflies on this single ox-eyed daisy. The female has the fatten abdomen in the center of the photo. Notice the more slender abdomen on the lower checkerspot it is a male and you can see slightly different wing markings too.

My first great Spangled Fritillaries this year. Usually when the white milkweed is in bloom they show up, it is in bloom. There were 4 of these fritillaries on this storm knocked down thistle when I found them. Thistle can be a butterfly magnet.

Saw 4 of these very uncommon Eastern Pine Elfins today. So far this year I have been lucky to see one on March 20th, April 17th and today May 15th. Not many times can you see any elfin during three different months. The Eastern Pine Elfin has a long spread out brood unlike the other elfins.

 Ebony Jewelwing damselfly my first one this year. And even better it let me get 2 inches from it for this photo!

The 13 year Cicada, I heard likely thousands of them up it the trees along the Eno River. One trail intersection must have had between 300-500 holes where they emerged in the mud in 6-8 foot of trail. I found the most exoskeletons  in mature ironwood trees.

These exoskeletons were on a poison ivy leaf.

Thought I let you hear the chorus of the cicada. These are called Brood XIX or the Great Southern Brood. I do recall this brood 13 years ago along the Eno River. Before these I have a memory of the 17 year cicada in Ohio Brood X or the Great Eastern Brood in 1970, it was massive at our house thousands flying everywhere, considered to be the largest brood ever recorded from what I have read.

OK now the goat rescue. We ate breakfast on the screened in porch around 8 am. We heard a goat calling non stop. Meg thought it was stuck in the fence next door. We both figured the stupid neighbors would take care of it shortly. These neighbors are the ones with the crazy loud as #$#@ peacocks that call all night. We keep our windows open whenever possible, apparently they close their windows tight. Meg was making dinner and the goat was still calling at 7pm 11 hours after we heard it in the morning. I walked through the woods and sure enough it had its head stuck in the fence just as Meg suggested. I carefully helped it get free. Some people should not be allowed to keep animals, they have donkeys, goats, ducks (no wait I think a fox got them), peacocks and chickens.

Here he is happy to be free again. Meg used to have goats and she said they get stuck in the fence fairly easily.

Eastern Redbud, Cercis canadensis

Where we live Eastern Redbud grows wild all along the roadsides, some places a lot others very little if not at all. Our driveway is loaded with it, and it reminds me of my time growing up in Ohio where it was all along the roadsides as well.

Above is an Eastern Redbud from today by our garden, the buds will open any day now. We'll be seeing a lot of it in bloom and the usual spring butterflies that visit the flowers. One butterfly of special interest is the Henry's Elfin a tiny gem of a butterfly that can be found along our road and in the redbuds in the yard. You have to look hard for these tiny 1/2 inch butterflies, it takes a lot of serious looking for them. Henry's Elfins are reported to use American Holly flowers as a host food in the southern US and Eastern Redbud in the northeastern US. We have very little hollies in our woods and I've never found any in flower in the woods. I've been told over and over again that the use of redbud as a host foodplant is a northern thing, but given one can find 6-8 of these little guys in a walk here makes me wonder.

We have another Elfin too, usually is emerges a little later than the Henry's it is the Eastern Pine Elfin as seen above. In the 11 seasons I have lived here only 3 times the Eastern Pine Elfin has been found, so it is one of the rarest butterflies found in our garden. If you didn't know we have had 76 species of butterflies in our garden. After a long time stuck at 75 species a Gulf Fritillary made number 76 last year.

Above is from a few years ago, our driveway. Below is the road out to our mailbox.

Below is a close up of redbud in full bloom.

Yes, my first butterfly photo of 2009

Male Falcate Orangetip perched on tall grass above our pond. Notice that the butterfly is holding on with 4 of it's 6 legs the other 2 legs are called pro legs you can see them folded next to the eyes. I've friends that have tried for years to get a photo of this butterfly, it just moved a little and caught my attention. It was chilly and we had overcast skies so to my good fortune it stayed perched for many photos. It remained in place even after I walked away.

Last thing: I walked down into our woodlands and took this photo of an American Trout Lily and Wind Flower. Lots of Windflowers coming up and the trout lilies are at nearly full bloom.

Henry's Elfin springtime tiny beauty.

This little gem of a butterfly is hard to see and mostly over looked because of its size. When I first started butterfly watching and photography I wanted this butterfly pretty bad, so I drove 2 + hours to Raven Rock State Park to join a field trip in March to find it. Some were sighted but not close enough for good photographs.

The next year I learned that right here in the yard we had a huge population of them (ok maybe 10, but 4-5 is usually the best you will do anywhere in NC). So in the past 8-9 years I have worked the woods and hedges to get a good photo. We have loads of wild Eastern Red Bud trees that they seem to favor the blooms on.

Here is the Henry's Elfin, Callophrys henrici on a sprouting blackberry twig they are about 1/2 tall. You can find more info with three more photos and a full scale web page on everything you need to know about them here on my web page on Henry's Elfins.

BTW This photo was taken in the wind with my Canon DSLR 20D and 180mm macro lens with a flash to enhance the ambient light.