Butterflies and summer are a great pair. I don’t pretend to be an expert but my whole life I’ve enjoyed them. When I was twelve I built a big screened room so I could raise them and see them more closely. On a walk last week we saw this gem, a Baltimore Checkerspot, right in the middle of the road. I’ve since seen photographs of the caterpillar and they are at least as showy.

Last night, when I was driving home, the air seemed to be full of moths! Not sure what kinds were flying but I found this Hapola species (thanks Larry from NBNC for ID help!) last week in a shady, daytime spot. What a gorgeous creature:

If you will be in Central Vermont on Saturday, July 26th, the North Branch Nature Center is again hosting the fabulous, young genius of caterpillars, Sam Jaffe, who will have a 100 or so different species on display. Whether or not you can attend, go to Sam’s websites and marvel at his photographs! This quiet young man has impressed many of us with his extensive knowledge and great love of caterpillars.

Ah…summer!!

21 Jul This entry was published on July 21, 2014 at 4:46 pm. It’s filed under John Snell, People, Photograph, Summer, Vermont and tagged Baltimore Checkerspot, butterflies, caterpillar, Hapola, John Snell, moths, North Branch Nature Center, photograph, Sam Jaffe, summer, Vermont. Bookmark the permalink. Follow any comments here with the RSS feed for this post.