By: Chuck Miller
Photography, Uncategorized

Hunting for Karner Blue Butterflies

Sunday morning.  I’m up at the crack of dawn, ready to go hunting.

And in my case – it’s hunting for Karner Blue butterflies.  That’s right, this is one of the two times that the elusive Nabokov-named native of the Albany Pine Bush can be found (the other time being in mid-July).  Figuring I might catch an opportunity to photograph some Karner Blues while they’re still fluttering to plants in the morning, I headed over to the Pine Bush, armed with my Nikon D700 and my 80-200 f/2.8 telephoto lens.

I got to the Pine Bush park, and walked along the various trails.  Everything seemed peaceful and tranquil.  No Karner Blues – I saw a couple of tiny white butterflies, but they flittered away before I could determine if they were the butterflies I seeked or just another butterfly species.

Of course, when one is traveling to photograph anything, one must be prepared for anything.  Spare battery in the back pocket.  Spare cleaning cloth for the lens.  Spare camera chip just in case I take too many photos.

And as I’m walking along the “white trail” of the Pine Bush, I happened to look up – and I saw what appeared to be a pine tree with some of its bark removed.  The tree started leaking a protective healing sap along the exposed bark area.  I need to get a photograph of that.

Bleeding Pine Bush tree, Albany, N.Y. Photo by Chuck Miller.

And I did.  And thanks to using my telephoto lens, I also got some nice bokeh in the background.

Still no sign of Karner Blue butterflies.

But I did find another flying resident of the Pine Bush.

Or, to put it more accurately – they found me.

Mosquitos.

Big thirsty mosquitos who kept stinging my arms as if I was their own personal Type-O-Negative Starbucks.  Take a picture.  Swat a mosquito.  Take another picture.  Swat another mosquito.  Mental note – bring bug spray next time I go to the Pine Bush.

In the end, though, I didn’t find any Karner Blue butterflies that morning.  I haven’t given up, though – at some point I’ll get some great photographs of those little beauties.

But until then, I can at least say I got a photo of a bleeding pine tree.