Fluttering Buckeyes

We have had more Buckeye butterflies at our house this year than in previous years. Since I really like the Buckeye butterflies, I have really enjoyed the additional visits.



The next one is such an unusual capture, I just had to include it here.

The Buckeye on the pale pink zinnia is so different looking.

I also posted one at my Photography By Leedra blog back on July 29.
Not many people follow me there anymore, but the Buckeye on a different color looks so different. I have been lucky enough to capture them on different flowers, including the butterfly bush in the last photo.

Notice the difference in the eyespots on this last one.

It is getting real hectic at work with all the changes going on. I am still on evenings at this time, but doing prep work for going to days. Looks like it will be the end of October before I actually go to days. I decided to go ahead and post my butterfly pictures while they are fresh, and I will visit as I get a chance.

Tuesday evening I heard from the Gallery of the Mountains (Grove Park Inn, Asheville North Carolina). They are reordering cards from me. I checked their blog and one of my cards is on their blog, posted this past Sunday.

Oh, and some more good news is, the fawn was seen on Sunday afternoon. When spooked she goes straight for the woods behind the house, and not in the direction of the highway. So maybe she will survive.

There are Buckeye and then there are Buckeyes

We have 2 Buckeye trees in Rockwood. They are so full of buckeyes that 2 limbs broke off one of the trees. Last year when we bought the place one limb was broke out of the front Buckeye tree, we didn't realise until this year, when it happened again that it is the weight of the Buckeyes that was breaking the limbs. If I had been meaning to photograph the tree I would have taken a better photo (hopefully), but I was actually taking a photograph of something else and then decided to crop it and use it here. I just realised I have these next 2 photos in the wrong order. Oh, well. This one is the empty buckeye hull, after I have snatched the buckeyes. Which you have to be real careful, the hull can be worse than a cactus when you get close to those pricklies.
The next one is a hull with the buckeyes still there. Most have 2 or 3 buckeyes, so the first one I found that had 4 I acted like I had found the four leaf clover. I kept them separated from all the others.
And I have lots of 'others'. I have a dish full. You have to get to them before the little black worms find them. The hulls have to just be turning. There are lots more on the 2 trees, but now the worms have found them, so I am not sure I will get anymore good ones this year.

After finding the 4 in one, then I found the real prize. The hull with only one buckeye. Notice it is round. Look back up at the hull with 3 in it. Notice one side is flat. So I was really excited with the single buckeye.

I had to go back and look for more.

I was able to find five. Had to flip them over for you to see the other side.

Then the beautiful Buckeye Butterfly, one of my favorites. I have another story to go with it. I took this photograph in the summer of 2007, I was in awe of this little butterfly. Look at those eyespots, with such detail. In September 2007 we went to the Grand Canyon, there was a lady there going on about the beauty of the canyon (and it IS GORGEOUS!), saying anybody that did not believe in God needed to visit the canyon. I told her all somebody had to do was look at the beautiful details God put on the Buckeye Butterfly to see there has to be a God. I just am not sure how the Buckeye Butterfly was ever referred to as the Common Buckeye. There is nothing common looking about it to me. He is beautiful!

I haven't been around my computer very much lately, except at work. I am going to Rockwood to be with Jimmy alot more, he is working 6 days , and 65 to 70 hours each week. My knitting is more mobile (with no internet access in Rockwood) and I am doing alot of knitting for the grandbabies. Not sure when I will get around to visiting, but I told one of my blogging buddies last year that I wanted to do a post on the buckeye tree and butterfly together. Sorry it took me a whole year.

Now just in case you want to know more about the Buckeye Tree I have included some information I found on the web.

The name Buckeye comes from the folklore of the Native Americans who noticed that the nut of the Buckeye tree resembles the eye of a buck deer, a buck eye. They also roasted, peeled and mashed the buckeye nut which they called Hetuck into a nutritional meal. The poisonous and bitter taste can be eliminated by heating and leaching. People wondering if they can eat buckeyes can but only after they have been heated and leached . Some believe that the buckeye relieves rheumatism pain. The symbol of General William Henry Harrison's presidential campaign was a string of buckeyes and a log cabin decorated with raccoon skins. His campaign song called Ohio the bonnie Buckeye state, as a result citizens in Ohio became know as "Buckeyes ." On October 2, 1953 the buckeye tree officially became the state tree.

The Buckeye tree is very adaptable to it's environment, thrives in conditions not suitable for other trees and is hard to kill once the buckeye tree is established.

Alot of people say buckeyes are lucky and keep one around the house, mostly in with their jewlery or carry one in their purse, or pocket. But they are not lucky if you try to eat one and not so lucky for cattle or some other animals if they try to eat one. Buckeyes are toxic , but not to squirrels, who eat them when other food is not available to them.

UPDATE: Please look at the comment from The Fishing Guy. He says it is possibly an American Chestnut tree instead. Here is the link he referred me to. I will try to get a photograph of the leaves this weekend while I am in Rockwood, so be watching and I will let you know which it is. And here is the link to the Buckeye tree, notice the buckeyes don't appear to be in a hull like the nut tree we have. Thank you The Fishing Guy for clearing this up for me.

Various butterflies taken February 2009 in Florida

Notice how in the first photograph of the Common Buckeye Butterfly

the lower part of his wing appear to be transparent.The second photo he has spider webs all around him.

The next 2 are the Zebra Heliconian Butterfly.

Not sure the name of this one.

Or this one.

This one is even more transparent than the Buckeye.

Hopefully Hap will be by to help me with the identification of these last 2.

Common Buckeye Butterfly

I think the Common Buckeye is beautiful. When we visited the Grand Canyon last year I had seen my first Buckeye the week before leaving on the trip, somebody there made reference to how can people not believe there is a God. I said how can you look at a Common Buckeye and not believe there is a God. Look at those circles outlined with another circle. Another sign of God, it doesn't take the Grand Canyon, just the smallest of small in our own yards.