NATURE JOURNAL A Butterfly, A Bolete, A Beggartick, and A Mystery

 

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

NATURE JOURNAL Ghost Pipes, Little Green Berries, Zig Zag Stems, Butterfly "Puddling"

 

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

NATURE JOURNAL A Quick Page to Remember Some Critters that I've Seen around the Yard!

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

NATURE JOURNAL Monarch Butterfly Reminds Me, Blackberry - Native or Not? Found a Peanut, Another Lactuca

More Possum Patty's Nature Journaling:

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #45 A Flutter of White Wings...

Today it's about the little white butterflies flying up the left side of the page so stop looking at the cute little Painted Turtle hatchling!

Didn't know that Pieris rapae was an accidentally introduced to North America from Europe or Asia species. It can be quite pesky in some agricultural areas. 

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

#MyCanterburyCoddiwomples #The100DayProject Day #43 A Painted Lady visits...

A visit from a Painted Lady butterfly, Vanessa cardui.

Ink and watercolor in my Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal. 

Art and Oatmeal: November Birds

Working on the "surround" while making a tunnel journal page. On this page I decided to start painting the birds of the season.

Art and Oatmeal with slices of Winesap Apple (Thank you, Carol!). I started the page by freely laying on and splashing the watercolors.

The first "bird" is a surprise sulfur butterfly that flew by me in the back yard on November 29th. (watercolor, ink, and colored pencil in Strathmore 500 Series Mixed Media Journal)

The next bird is a squawky backyard Blue Jay. Inspiration for the layers of watercolor, ink, and colored pencils comes from Paivi at Peony and Parakeet. 

The Snowbirds are back! 

A bright spot of color in the yard! Note the hole which will become part of the "tunnel" journal page.

Zinnias and Zabulons

What's on my mind?

Went out to sketch the Zinnias and found a zillion Zabulons!

Zabulon Skippers and Zinnias in ink and watercolor wash.

Summer Birds: A Giant Swallowtail Visits

Young Maria Merian called butterflies her Summer Birds. During the Middle Ages, some people thought that insects were born from the mud and thus evil creatures who could change shapes (metamorphosis). Maria loved the beautiful insects and studied them in secret so that people would not think she was a witch. She grew to be an artist and a scientist. 

This Giant Swallowtail is so common in the South that it seems to be a pest in some areas. Here, in the Mid-Atlantic, we see a few every summer. This one was in my front yard feasting on Zinnia nectar. It was a first time sighting for this species at home. Started this page with watercolors, didn't like the shape of the wings, do-over with some acrylic paint, and topped it off with the Sakura Glaze pens just for fun. I think I tried out all of the colors on the leaves (which, by the way, are only there to hide the old wings).

Art and Oatmeal with Peaches and.....Caterpillars???

A small piece of paper with the number 3 written on it was  bestowed upon me for safe-keeping by the Lancaster Entomological and Butterfly Society. Within days I had 4 tiny dark-colored Imperial Moth caterpillars. Everyday I fed them and cleaned their container.

A breakfast only a naturalist can appreciate!

And, no, I did not eat the caterpillars. Just sketched them during breakfast. 

They eat White Pine needles. The container had a nice piney scent.

Part of my "Possum Patty's Sketch and Release Program." These guys are almost ready to dig down into the ground to pupate and overwinter, so I put them out into our stand of White Pines. Blessings and good luck!

More Butterflies: 

Speedwell Lake: Butterflies in the white clover

Sitting in the mowed "lawn" area next to the parking lot at the lake, I noticed several butterflies aflit (which in the Ancient Romulan tongue means something akin to "afoot" but with a fluttering motion) . 

The largest was a Buckeye that sat for several minutes on a white clover slowly opening and closing its wings. That made it easy to count the "eyes" and put in the correct number of orange bars - although later on I did a check in Jan's butterfly guide book. 

The other butterfly that visited long enough for me to sketch was this Pearly Crescent. It landed on the side of my white car so that I could get a good view of it.

Birds at Speedwell:

More Butterflies:

Lovin' Insect Life...

Noisy Wings and SilentTattered Wings

On my mind: there's been a noisy Red-tailed Hawk in the backyard for a few weeks now. Today she was "dive bombed" by two small birds. The aggressive birds were just a little too far away to be identified but they may have been Mockingbirds.

While on the deck I noticed two Fritillaries on the Coneflowers. One butterfly was quite tattered and torn, while the other was in excellent shape.

This variety of Coneflower has outstanding yellow and vibrant orange colors!

Deer cuisine update: someone's been eating the  

squash leaves!

!

Squash update: to pick or not to pick? I'm afraid if I don't pick this zucchini some one will come along and eat it.

New borne squash:

When the Catbird sings...

On the Maple Tree:

A Blue Gossamer Confusion

Today my mind is in a state of blue gossamer confusion because I saw a beautiful blue Azure butterfly in the front yard the other day. It's too late in the season for the Spring Azure (Celastrina ladon). It looked larger and darker than the Springs I usually see. Could it be an Appalachian Azure (Celastrina neglectamajor)? I only thought that because I just learned there was such a thing. I asked Carl and he didn't think so, perhaps too late in the season? Is it a Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta)? Too early? Carl said they were a bit rare right now. I looked up Azures on the webber-net. There's actually a Holly Azure (Celastrina idella) which has a range just to the east of here on the Atlantic coastal plains. I did see the butterfly next to the Holly bush! Egads! I'm sure this mystery will never be solved.

Azures are gossamer-winged butterflies - a very large family called "Lycaenidae". Watercolors, Tombow marker, Zig Writer Pen, and blue gossamer in Strathmore Series 500 Mixed Media Journal.

 More on my mind:

Sense of Wonder

"June Bug"is a character from my journal that represents the child-like sense of wonder found in naturalists. I completed these pages last summer after finding a Painted Lady Butterfly in the backyard for the first time. I monoprinted with a Gelli plate, stamped, painted, and just had fun with art supplies.