Butterfly In Mid-Flight

This looks like just an ordinary picture of a butterfly, doesn't it? If you click on it to make it bigger, you will notice that the butterfly is more than a little blurry. That doesn't really sound like a very good picture at all, really. But there is much more to this picture than that.

What you are actually seeing here is the fulfillment of the hope of a longtime mission of mine. That is to capture a butterfly in mid-flight. I have chased flying butterflies in vain for many years now. Always pointing my camera at these fluttering little blurs of color, but never quite catching them.

Oh sure, I've gotten many pictures of butterflies after they have landed on a leaf or a flower. But the ones in the air are always too fast for me. It has been a near impossible task to attain such a prize. That is until now. The picture above shows the butterfly right in the middle of flapping its wings while it was flying in close to these plants, never quite staying in the same pace.

This picture above is another of the pictures I took of the butterfly as it flew near these plants. This time you can see that it is definitely flying. It never moved far, maybe within an arms length from here, back and forth. The story started even farther than this.

When I first saw the butterfly I noticed a pattern. I don't know why. I saw that this area was where it kept coming back to. It would fly a very long distance to the left. And then it would fly back, but then move an equally long distance to the right. I thought about chasing it at first, but I knew I would lose it.

So I waited in this central area for it to come back to its starting point. I hoped something lucky would happen, but I never quite dreamed it would be this good. I just wanted one more picture of a butterfly before I made the journey home. Sometimes with persistence we just get lucky.

And here was my original goal. This is what I was hoping to get when I first saw this butterfly. After all of that effort it came to this. I got what I wanted. And happily what I wanted turned out to be the second best thing about this little butterfly.

This all proves that the more you see nature the more amazing it seems. There are always new surprises, even with creatures that you see every day. The thrill will never end.


Nature Center Magazine - We have an all new Free Wallpaper. This time the contributor is WiseAcre, and he has given us a real treat. Take a good look at the frogs nose!