Home :: Favorites - 2007 • 2006 • 2005 :: Links :: Books :: Gallery
Photo lists - Papilionidae :: Pieridae :: Lycaenidae :: Riodinidae :: Nymphalidae :: Hesperiidae
I've taken a lot of butterfly photographs over the years, but in the summer of 2005 I got serious enough to invest in equipment that allowed me to move beyond the limitations of the point-and-shoot cameras that had long frustrated me. Thrilled with the results I was getting with my new gear, I became much more serious about what had long been a casual hobby and started making regular butterfly hikes a part of my life. I decided it would be fun to set an ambitious goal that would take years to accomplish: to photograph all the species in Southern California. Since I was basically starting over with the new camera, I needed even the most common species like Cabbage Whites and Painted Ladies, so trips to the backyard or my local park could mean encountering a butterfly I needed. Getting a good photo of a species I don't have or (especially) have never seen before is always exciting and often memorable. So some of what you see below are 'favorites' because of the story behind them or the thrill I felt getting the shot, and not just because I think the photo is pleasing. For each of these, I can remember exactly where I was when I took the shot. Maybe that explains why I don't have other photographers' photos on this site; the story behind the photo is almost as important to me as the image itself.
When I took this picture I was very familiar with Painted Ladies and had even raised West Coast Ladies as a kid on hollyhocks I planted. So I was excited to get this photo because it was my first sighting of the related American Lady, something I'd seen so often in books over the years. I was hiking near the landmark Candy Store on the Ortega Highway in Orange County. This trail (Bear Canyon) leads through open scrub past a creek bed to cool, quiet woods that can be fantastic for butterflies I could never see in my neighborhood. I've since seen and photographed many American Ladies but this is still my favorite.
August 10, 2005
California Sisters patrol near Oaks, and for years - literally - I could not get a decent photo of one. They tend to fly into a tree in their territory (usually above eye level), turn towards the trail, put their wings up and survey their domain. This one was kind enough to land at about knee level on a low Oak branch and spread his wings for several minutes. I remember sneaking up to him sure I would scare him away, and thinking that if I blew this chance it might be years before I had another. But it shocked me - it stayed put and I actually got a couple dozen good photos. This was literally 5 minutes after I photographed the American Lady above - what a hike!
August 10, 2005
This Monarch is sipping from its host, Milkweed (Asclepias curassavica in this instance), at El Dorado Park near my home in Long Beach. My wife and I realized that someone who knew what they were doing had established patches of butterfly-attracting plants at several places in the park - Passion Vine for Gulf Fritillaries, Milkweed for Monarchs and Queens, Mallow for West Coast Ladies and others, and lots of nectar sources. My favorite spot was a median planted with dozens of great nectar sources, and on good days butterflies were practically swarming the bushes. A couple of years ago they scraped every plant out and it has been a dirt patch ever since. This shot was at a bridge over a creek, and I was able to get the blue water in the background with pink flowers adding still more color. Under the lip of the wooden bridge were a dozen or more Monarch chrysalids, and there were over a dozen Milkweed plants nearby supporting both Monarch and Queen caterpillars most of the year. I eventually met the mystery lepidopterist: a groundskeeper who had taken entomology classes at Long Beach State. He's not at the park anymore and many of his plants are gone. Idiots.
August 5, 2005
Another first for me - an Anise Swallowtail nectaring on thistle at Malibu Creek State Park. At the time I'd seen lots of Western Tigers, and in Big Bear I'd regularly see the Pale Swallowtail. I knew from a distance this was different. Haven't seen one since there, but I get them in my backyard now nectaring at my Buddleia davidii. I've planted flat-leaved parsely around the garden but so far no luck attracting gravid females.
July 26, 2005
This Boisduval's Blue is part of a colony that uses the Lupine alongside one of my favorite places to hike. Bluff Lake Meadow is in the Big Bear area, and the nearby Siberia Creek Trail is a great butterfly spot in a beautiful setting. When I see the photo I think of the cool meadow. I don't recommend it, because I want to keep it to myself. It's very dangerous.
July 19, 2005
Anza-Borrego Desert State Park is spectacular. In the fall I returned to legendary Plum Canyon hoping to find California Giant Skippers (I did), and I happened upon this Great Purple Hairstreak on Desert Lavender. They just don't seem like they could be part of our fauna. I've made the 3-hour-or-so drive to Anza-Borrego many times and I've almost always managed to see something interesting. But it can be a tricky place to find butterflies much of the year, and there is a real chance you'll see none at all. A good day can be mind-blowing, as there are over 130 species/subspecies there, and many of these are highly sought-after.
October 3, 2005
This is at Big Bear again, but this time northeast of the lake. This is a common butterfly, a male Marine Blue. I like the background, and it was a pretty fresh butterfly. The specific place is along Caribou Creek, which is up Van Dusen Road near the Pacific Crest Trail - another potentially great hike where I always have to check several favorite spots, not to mention the abundant Rabbit Brush all along the road every autumn. Some of California's most obscure butterflies are in this general area.
July 18, 2005
This Red Admiral was hanging around some my sage not long after I bought my new camera. Often this was a wary, flighty species that had eluded me for some reason, but this time I got a good photo of a fresh atalanta against a really nice backdrop. For the literary nerds out there, this is the "dark Vanessa with a crimson band" John Shade sees - right before he gets killed - in the abstruse novel Pale Fire by Vladimir Nabokov. Nabokov much preferred the old common name "Red Admirable".
July 13, 2005