Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
I visited the Sourland Mountain Preserve yesterday at 15:00. It was hot out, and I only lasted an hour. I saw a number of Monarch butterflies, but they were not staying still. I did catch both a Monarch butterfly and an Eastern Tiger Swallowtail butterfly feeding on a Queen Anne’s Lace flower. I don’t often see butterflies feeding on this flower.
Some may think I have an obsession with the beautiful Hummingbird Clearwing Moth (Hemaris thysbe). These were taken in the back section of my property where I have a number of Thistle plants in bloom. Most folks call the Thistles terrible weeds. I like them because I know from the Sourland Mountain Preserve that the flowers attract a variety of bees, butterflies, and hummingbird moths. The seeds attract Goldfinch birds. Images taken with a Fuji X-T1 camera and 55-200 mm OIS lens, Nikon D3x camera and 105 mm f/2.8 VR macro lens or a Nikon D4 camera and 300 mm f/4 lens.
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Summertime Nature at the Sourland Mountain Preserve.
Pair of Bumblebees Working the Summer Goldenrod at the Sourland Mountain Preserve. Image taken with a Nikon Df camera and 300 mm f/2.8 VR lens (ISO 1400, 300 mm, f/8, 1/1250 sec). Raw image processed with Capture One Pro, Focus Magic, and Photoshop CC 2014.