Bryan's Posts About Butterflies
We Hope To See You (Fully Clothed) Friday in Montpelier
Ruth and I look forward to seeing folks in Montpelier this Friday night for our contribution to the North Branch Nature Center’s Naturalist Journeys lecture series.
Kiss This: A Higher Calling for Mistletoe
Get yourself under some wild mistletoe this Christmas. Your gift might be a shock-and-awe butterfly called Great Purple Hairstreak. Mistletoe, a plant that grows on trees or shrubs, is a bit of a leech, a hemiparasite, which means mistletoe draws minerals and fluids from its host.
Butterfly Light
On the shortest days of the year, I bring you light – butterfly light. Over the weekend, I encounted 26 butterfly species at the Arizona-Sonora Desert Museum outside Tucson. The place was heaven. See a gallery and a slide show.
The Last Monarch
HERE IS YOUR LAST GASP OF SUMMER. Yep, most of the Monarchs are long gone – off with the winds to Mexico. But I’ve encountered America’s favorite butterfly here in Vermont as late as October 31 and along the Maine…
Naked in Norway
In the Arctic life wanders close to earth. In the Arctic there are no hiding places. And in the Arctic Ruth and I find unspeakable beauty and biodiversity on a warming planet.
True North
You can lose your life in Norway — the life you might decide to leave behind for a new one here in true north.
DSA Update No. 5: Carnage & Closure
Here’s a parting shot from the 2014 DSA meeting in Wisconsin: dragonflies being dragonflies – flying around, having sex, and killing things, including one another.
Got Milkweed?
Now drifting back into northern sections of the United States, Monarchs face a perfect storm of threats. But you can plant the seeds (literally) to help America’s favorite insect.
Dirty Insect Image No. 4: Mustard Whites
In my continuing series of Dirty Insect Images, this pair of Mustard Whites (Pieris napi) spent about 10 minutes copulating on a red maple seedling yesterday.
Montpelier Wild No. 4: April Fireworks
In Monday’s heat the butterflies awoke. During our walk around Berlin Pond, where we noted 32 bird species, Ruth and I saw the year’s first butterflies: Mourning Cloak and Eastern Comma. They were also 2013’s last butterflies. These two species…
The Year in Flight
They dwell on northern bogs and at ponds, and do what damselflies do: fly around, kill things and have sex. To casual observers, this pair of Subarctic Bluets (Coenagrion interrogatum) may appear no different than many other little blue damselflies…
The Last Butterfly
By Bryan on November 5, 2013 From spring through fall, they flickered and fluttered among us – tiny flashes of red, orange, yellow and blue floating above hayfields and dancing in flower gardens: Spring Azures, Great Spangled Fritillaries, Red Admirals,…
