Flitter-Flutterers

I don't usually think of October as a time for butterflies, but this October has been quite wonderful to see all sorts of them. I offer here two flutterbys: a monarch and a buckeye, with videos and photos.

Shakespeare Garden in Central Park is a wonderful place to look for butterflies. There is often great sunlight, and lots of milkweed to attract the monarchs. I saw a perfect monarch butterfly on Oct. 12 — no rips in the wings, or any other damage to this gorgeous flitterer.

Monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus), Shakespeare Garden, Oct. 12, 2016

The video is set to the second half of Dance of the Hours by Ponchielli (the first half was used in the buckeye butterfly video). If you haven't seen the prequel to this monarch video, check out Monarch Wannabes.

Another Silly Video by Susan Kirby. A monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) on Oct. 12, 2016, in Shakespeare Garden in Central Park. This beautiful butterfly was perfect -- no bites or rips of the wings, gorgeous color. Set to music by Ponchielli, Dance of the Hours, Markus Staab, obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source.

On October 7, I got to photograph a buckeye butterfly (Junonia coenia Hübner) at Conservatory Garden in Central  Park.

Common buckeye, Conservatory Garden, Oct. 7, 2016

Another Silly Video by Susan Kirby. A buckeye butterfly flits around on Oct. 7 in Conservatory Garden in Central Park. Set to music by Amilcare Ponchielli, from La Gioconda, performed by Markus Staab, obtained from MusOpen.org, a royalty-free music source.

I am in the process of a much longer video, to be included in my Contemplate This series of videos. My effort in this series is to create videos that you can put on your computer when you want to relax, and just watch relaxing, soothing images set to nice music. A couple are in the works, and my butterfly video will feature quite a variety of butterflies over four years.