Sax Zim Butterflies

Bees are not the only thing that helps to pollinate the plants. Butterflies do not collect pollen, like bees do, but they do also spread pollen when they are drinking nectar from a bloom. With plenty of wild flowers in bloom at the Sax Zim Bog I had plenty of opportunities for some butterfly pics.
I do not know my skippers very but I think that it is probably an European skipper.
European skippers are fairly common in the north east quarter of the US and Canada, since their accidental release in Ontario, Canada back in 1910. They are fairly plain except for the black line border on the top side of their wings.

The least skipper is similar in size, color and plainness, but they have a bit more black on their wings and they have a long tapered abdomen. The European skipper has a short fairly blunt abdomen as shown in the second pic.
I am always on the look out for blues while out in the fields. There are several variety of blues that can be found in Minnesota but the one that I always hope to see is the endangered Karner blue. Some parts of eastern Minnesota are with in the range of the Karner blue but Sax Zim is a little to far north and west. Most of the blues that I see have orange spots on their lower wing, both wings in the case of a Karner, but this blue only had a hint of orange. My guess is that it is a summer azure.
Although I did see my first tiger swallowtail of the year and a few monarchs I did not get any pictures of either of those types that day. It seems that they were more interested in fly then in getting their picture taken.
I did find one larger butterfly to photograph, this Milbert's tortoiseshell. The Milbert's torty is common in the northern portions of North America as well as higher elevations.
It is sometimes possible to see the Milbert's flying on a warm day during the middle of winter. In fact I photographed this type of butterfly up in the mountains of Yellowstone and the day before snow covered much of the park.

Woodlake Butterflies

The next morning I decided to check out Woodlake Nature Center to see what wildlife I could photograph. I found some more early morning butterflies to shoot.
This least skipper was unusually cooperative which is good because I was photographing it with a 400mm lens. This means that I had to be about 4 to 5 feet away and had to use manual focus.
In this picture it is easy to see the proboscis inserted into the flower which the butterfly uses like a straw to drink nectar.
I also found a mourning cloak butterfly. Mourning cloaks have the longest life span of any butterfly in North America.
The mourning cloak is one of only a hand full of butterflies that overwinters in its adult butterfly form. When winter comes the mourning cloak will find a sheltered spot, somewhere like a crevice of a tree or building, where it will spend most of the winter in a state of suspended animation to conserve energy. To prevent their bodies from freezing the produce chemicals, such as sorbitol, which act as a natural antifreeze. When the weather begins to warm up the mourning cloaks come to life, as early as March some years in my area of the world. Shortly after, dependent on the weather, they will mate, lay eggs and then their life cycle will be complete after 10 to 11 months of life.

Bass Ponds Butterflies

After my scolding by the angry catbird at the Bass Ponds, I decided to go find something that was a little less noisy to photograph. Fortunately I was able to find some butterflies around the ponds that I was able to photograph in peace and quiet.

This first photo, I believe, is of a least skipper. I still have a very difficult time identifying the different skippers. Most of them are very small and there are little differences distinguishing several types.
I think that this small one is an European skipper. According to my Kaufman Guide to Butterflies of North America, the European skipper was accidentally introduced into North America at Ontario, Canada back in 1910. Since its introduction its range has spread to include most of the North Eastern and North Central US as well as much of Eastern Canada.
The cabbage white is one of the most common butterflies seen in North America. It ranges through most of the US and Canada. Last year there were a lot of white cabbage butterflies around and so it was not that big of a deal to get a pic. This year though I have not seen nearly as many so I was a bit more excited about getting a pic.
Butterflies have 4 different stages of life. Life for the monarch butterfly begins as a tiny white egg which is typically laid on the underside of a milkweed leaf. The egg hatches 3 to 6 days from the day which is laid and a tiny Caterpillar emerges. The caterpillar will feed on nothing but milkweed leaves for 9 to 14 days. As it feeds it grows pretty quickly. To accommodate their rapid growth the caterpillar will shed its skin 5 times, each time the older smaller skin will peal away with a new larger skin waiting underneath. When it reaches its mature size, about 2 inches long, it will leave the milkweed and look for a safe place to form is pupae or chrysalis.
Many people know that monarchs fly south for the winter like birds do, either to the mountains of Central Mexico or the Southern California coast, but many people may not be aware that unlike birds it is not the same monarchs that return the following spring. During the summer monarch butterflies live about 2 to 5 weeks before they die. The last generation of the summer gather together and, as the temps get colder, they begin the long migration to traditional wintering grounds that they have never seen before. On their wintering grounds they cluster together in colonies in a hibernated state to preserve their energy. As the temps begin to warm up with spring the monarchs come to life and begin the migration to the north. They do not go very far however. At this point they are 7 to 8 months old and near to expiring. So they mate and lay eggs. This new generation follows through the life cycle and then as butterflies continue to move north. After their 2 to 5 weeks of life this generation dies, but not before laying the eggs for the next generation, which will continue to move north. This continues with each successive generation moving further north until the end of summer then the cycle begins again with the last generation migrating south.

Old Cedar Butterflies

The flycatchers, swallows, and warblers at Old Cedar have quite a smorgasbord of insects to choose from. Besides the mosquitoes, Minnesota might be the land of 10,000 lakes but we are also home to about 10 billion mosquitoes, flies, which have been so bad this year that I have actually seen deer flies down in the cities, dragons, damsels, spiders, and other insects there have are also a few butterflies. This year it seems that there are not as many butterflies as last year but usually I see a couple while I am out in the wilds.
In June at Old cedar I found a couple of butterflies to photograph. The first one, above, I believe is a European skipper. Skippers are tough to ID for new butterfly enthusiasts like myself, but using my autographed Kaufman Field Guide to Butterflies of North America I have concluded that this is the European skipper. If any of the experienced butterfly enthusiasts believe that I need to have my eyes examined let me know.
Incidentally I do need to go in for an eye exam, part of being a diabetic is annual eye exams, besides since my near vision has gone to hell since I got my current glasses. Which makes it difficult to see the camera LCD when you are taking pictures of butterflies like this hackberry emperor.
The hackberry emperor is a brush-footed butterfly that can be found through out most of the eastern half of the US as well as the south west and Mexico. They are fast, erratic fliers that are typically drawn to sap, rotting fruit, carrion, and dung. They often rest perched upside down on the trunks of trees. They get their name from the one of the larval host plants which is hackberry, the other host plant is sugarberry.

Carlos Avery Butterflies

And lest I forget Carlos Avery also had some butterflies for me to photograph that weekend.
Skippers are usually pretty hard for me to identify, especially since I am such a newbie. They are kind of like the sparrows are in the bird world, small, hard to see, and all look a lot a like. I think that this one is a crossline skipper but if you think that I am wrong please feel free to correct me.

The little wood-satyr is typically found in forest clearings or on the edges of woods, which is where I found this one. They fly in a bouncy pattern usually close to the ground, although they will also sometimes fly up into trees and perch on a leaf blade.
The pearl crescent is a very common butterfly, especially in the eastern half of the United States. They can typically be found in open fields as well as in flower gardens and on the sides of roads. One of the reasons that they are so common is the fact that they often have 3 or more broods per year.
The silver-bordered fritillary is common in the northern US and through out much of Canada. They are typically found in boggy areas, marshes or wet meadows.
The white admiral is found through out most of the northern part of North America as well as Europe. Their typical habitat is forest edges or along streams.
Although they look different the white admiral is actually the same species as the red-spotted purple.

Duskywing Skippers

Besides butterflies we also saw a couple different types of skippers at Crex Meadows on June 1st.
Skippers are similar to butterflies, both are members of the order Lepidoptera, but they typically have shorter wings and a thicker, hairy body.
The skippers that we found that day were the dreamy duskywing, pictured first, and the persius duskywing, pictures above. Both of these types of skippers are spread-wing skippers, because when they land they usually spread their wings out similarly to many butterflies. Other skippers hold their wings partially open with the upper and lower wings at different angles.