Everyone was away for the weekend, so after a couple of walks, I went through the cabinets in the garage and came out with a very old camera, the first one where I could diddle with aperture, speed, and general things having to do with exposure. From years of experience, I already knew how to take an out-of-focus shot, and that's what I attempted to do with this Cabbage Moth. Just wondering what it would look like, a smudge or something "dreamy" and soft, almost like Oriental art. I didn't expect this, something with which I've always been satisfied but could never describe. My wife and I love it, but we want more opinions from those on Flickr. Lying is acceptable since I'm probably not going to try this again. You have no idea how difficult it was to do something "wrong" on purpose and in 1/50th second, f6.5.

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Ten minutes before spotting the hunting egret, I was stalking a Painted Lady butterfly. Following an insect that flies like it's perpetually under the influence isn't easy, but this guy made a beeline or butterfly swerve for a patch of Alum root by the canal trail, and I was able to get 40+ images, all good enough to post, a quandary I'd welcome more often. In this instance, after narrowing it to four possible posts, the question was square crop or go with the portrait. As you can see, I chose square: three reasons. 1. It has its proboscis out feeding; 2. This shows more orange; and 3. I liked it better. Btw, this butterfly's pattern is much more intricate and pleasing than that when the wings are unfolded.

"Vanessa cardui is a well-known colourful butterfly, known as the Painted Lady or formerly in North America as the Cosmopolitan." I didn't even know its name was "Vanessa." Two related species and, evidently occupation, are called the "West Coast Lady" and the "Australian Lady."

V. cardui is one of the most widespread of all butterflies, found on every continent except Antarctica and South America. They migrate through this area every June and July and outnumber any other butterfly, even the Monarch.

The wildflower my friend was on is interesting: The common name for the Alumroot is Coral bells. The scientific name of the Alumroot is Heuchera. The First Nations or Inuit name for the Alumroot is rat root. Alum root or Alumroot is a common name for some species of two different genera of flowering plants: Heuchera, also called Coralbells, and Geranium, also called wild geranium or cranesbills. (Note or not to note: Wild geranium I found in Sequoia in no way looks like this: it is a much more interesting rangy plant that uses a catapult to disperse its seeds flic.kr/p/RRtZzY)

Tags:   Painted Lady Australian Lady West Coast Lady Vanessa cardui Widespread Migrating Butterfly Alum Root Wildflower Coralbells Geranium Heuchera Canon SX50 Mt. Diablo Foothills Northern California Copyright Ethan A. Winning

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The Umber Skipper, Poanes melane, is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae. It is found in California (west of the Sierra Nevada divide), southern Arizona, Baja California, the highlands of Mexico and Central America, and six miles from my front door. The habitat consists of desert foothills, grassy areas, streamsides, roadsides, yards, parks and open oak woodland (six miles from my front door).

I don't know how common it is, but I've seen ... maybe six in 15 years, all in the oak grasslands and by one pond on Mt. Diablo where I also used to find this horsetail grass, a favorite perch when oak and rye grass aren't available.

Once more, Skippers are butterflies, not moths. Though the shape may be deceiving, the flight especially of this particular skipper is relatively straight. It is not attracted to light, but will readily go to any wildflower. I have found the Umber with Firy and the rare (here) Branded Skippers.

Go to nurseries in Western Canada and the U.S. and look for these little beauties on Lantana, their absolute favorite. In fact, almost guaranteed that you'll attract any Skipper, but especially the Firey and Umber if you plant one lantana bush or potted plant in your yard.

Tags:   Umber Skipper Poanes melane Lantana A Favorite Found in Grass and Oak Woodlands The Least Common of the Skippers Near Mt. Diablo Northern California Canon SX40 Copyright Ethan A. Winning. One article maintains there are more Skippers in western Canada's foothills than any other butterflies. Don't know if that's true but thought my Canadian friends might want to check it out.

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Nine years ago, while hiking in the foothills of Mt. Diablo, and at the fork in the trail between Bullfrog Pond and what we called The Acorn Woodpecker Tree Trail (Ginder Gap), we found six Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars munching away on their favorite (only) food, the Milkweed. In this instance, Mt. Diablo provides one species of milkweed, the Narrow-leaved Milkweed (Apocynum
cannabinum) that will provide all that the monarch to become a butterfly and complete it's last leg of its migratory journey.

Milkweed is toxic to humans. In fact, it's toxic to most birds, and it provides some safety to the caterpillar (bright yellow) and the butterfly (bright orange). DNA in birds says "Do Not Eat," and DNA in the cat says, "Eat This."

My wife and I visited the spot that contained seven or eight wide ranging Milkweed plants with a minimum of ten caterpillars that fed, apparently, day and night for two weeks at which point they would have formed a chrysalis and then emerged as butterflies.

On the eighth day, hoping I would see my first chrysalis ever, we found that some *^&(%$! had dug up the plants and probably moved it to their back yard, depriving all of us from learning something about metamorphosis. I even put up a little sign: I couldn't ask for the return of the plants and the caterpillars, so I strongly admonished the $S*%O$B! that such acts in some countries was punishable by death. (Well, why not go that far! Maybe they lost 10 minutes sleep.)

Fortunately, we had taken a few pictures almost at every visit. I liked this one the best, but I sure would have liked a Monarch emerging from a chrysalis!

Tags:   Monarch Butterfly Caterpillar Chrysalis Narrow Leaved Milkweed Toxic Sole Food Source for the Monarch Caterpillar Apocynum cannabinum Canon SX20 Copyright Ethan A. Winning Mt. Diablo Foothills Northern California

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The Fiery Skipper (Hylephila phyleus) is a butterfly of the family Hesperiidae and is approximately 1 inch (2.5 cm) long. The males are orange or yellow with black spots while the females are dark brown with orange or yellow spots. The caterpillars are greenish pink with a black head. The caterpillars are often considered pests and can feed on Bermudagrass, creeping bentgrass, and St. Augustine grass. These butterflies are numerous from spring through summer. If you want to control the caterpillars, stop growing lawns and golf courses. Of course, if you could train Canada Geese to eat the caterpillars ... no, wait. That's replacing one small pest with one large one.

How can I say that about the Canada Goose? Easy. Every time I go to the swamp, I have to tiptoe on the walks leading to the trails. Ashes to ashes; geese to grass; grass to other green deposits.

By the way, this Skipper was on a Chrysanthemum indicum which is native to NA, but grows wild as well. But the Fiery Skipper is the subject of this image, so I'll skip adding the image to wildflowers groups.

Tags:   Fiery Skipper on Chrysanthemum indicum Butterflies Lepidoptera Heather Farm Nature Reserve Northern California Canon S3IS The First of the Canon Powershots and at 6MP as good as it got in 2009 Copyright Ethan A. Winning

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