Spring Unbound: Butterfly Shadows

Spring was launched today. An entire day of sunshine with temperatures reaching 60 degrees lit the green fuse and launched a multitude of insects. The flood of events, emergences, and blooming flowers is now unstoppable and just ahead. Like Prometheus, Spring is now unbound. Or as Milton put it in Paradise Lost "At once came forth whatever creeps the ground."

After seeing what was likely a Honey Bee leave our backyard garden, I couldn't shake the thought of possibly finding the first native bee of the year. The best chances would be at the sandy slope of the oak savanna in the Cannon River Wilderness Area, so I went there for a hike. And while I didn't succeed in finding that first native bee, I did see plenty of other things: a spectacular Rove Beetle that flew by and landed on a patch of moss, several kinds of terrestrial snail shells, a tangerine-striped leafhopper, Ichneumon Wasps under slabs of limestone, Virginia Wood Cockroaches, Winter Fireflies, a Wolf Spider, a Dwarf Spider, and two butterflies.

Edwin Teale writes in Circle of the Seasons on March 25 about bird shadows: "Without looking up, without hearing the bird call, I could have identified the shadow. How many birds can we recognize by their shadows alone?" I had the same experience today while walking in the woods, but with a butterfly shadow. Seeing a large shadow moving erratically across the leaves of the forest floor I knew without looking up that a Mourning Cloak was flying overhead.

Posted on March 29, 2017 03:38 AM by scottking