{"id":595,"date":"2025-12-31T10:43:15","date_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:43:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/?p=595"},"modified":"2025-12-31T10:49:48","modified_gmt":"2025-12-31T15:49:48","slug":"a-beautiful-ending","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/2025\/12\/31\/a-beautiful-ending\/","title":{"rendered":"A beautiful ending"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

I thought to end the year on a positive note, as strange as that may be given the wretched state of the world. Nevertheless, to end on a note of beauty that is or should be common to all of us brings a certain contentment. And that is the beauty of butterflies, whose colors are so often magnificent.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The first butterfly is the eastern tiger swallowtail (Papilio glaucus<\/em>) that I photographed while out walking.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A tiger swallowtail.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

In the photo above, the wings are translucent from the sunlight behind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second photo of the tiger swallowtail presents its actual colors.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The tiger swallowtail is on a clover flower.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Next, there is a variegated fritillary (Euptoieta claudio<\/em>) that I photographed in my backyard. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A variegated fritillaray.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The second photo demonstrates the translucency of a butterfly’s wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

How different the upper wing view of the variegated fritillary from the underwing view.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The fritillary is enjoying nectar from butterfly bush blossoms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

My next backyard butterfly is a spicebush swallowtail (Papilio troilus<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A spicebush swallowtail.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

It’s marvelous how butterfly bush blossoms attract butterflies.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Another backyard butterfly is a red-spotted purple (Limenitis arthemis astyanax<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A red-spotted purple.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The red-spotted purple is a swallowtail mimic, inasmuch as swallowtails are not considered good eating.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Back to swallowtails, and here is an occasional visitor to my backyard, a giant swallowtail (Papilio cresphontes<\/em>).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A giant swallowtail.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The giant swallowtail is probably the largest butterfly of the eastern United States.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The giant swallowtail had some wing damage but was able to fly without difficulty.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Last comes a moment of happiness: The release of a monarch (Danaus plexippus<\/em>) on its way, ideally, to winter in Mexico.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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A monarch release.<\/em><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Sue and I oversaw the raising of seven monarch caterpillars that became adult butterflies and then released them to fly south.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I thought to end the year on a positive note, as strange as that may be given the wretched state of the world. Nevertheless, to end on a note of beauty that is or should be common to all of … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,15],"tags":[28,22,5,14],"class_list":["post-595","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-butterfly","category-wildlife","tag-butterfly","tag-butterfly-bush","tag-photography","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=595"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":622,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/595\/revisions\/622"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=595"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=595"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=595"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}