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(meteorobs) more meteors and butterflies

Another ridiculously cooperative weather pattern lured 
my wife and daughter and me out of the urban sprawl, 
and back into the lap of nature last Saturday (8/1), for 
another day of wildflowers, butterflies, a few rarer 
sights and the shifting tide of meteors.

......We spent a couple hours talking and laughing by the 
camp fire before making for a 2 hour nap. The three of 
us struggled to rise, managing to force ourselves 
upright around 1:30am. (My daughter has the annoying 
ability to be sweet and gregarious the moment she opens 
her eyes. It takes me most of the next three hours to
reach such an elevated state of cognizance.) Though 
low in the southwest and hidden well below the trees, 
the moon's presence was obvious in the soupy wash over 
head, but over the next half hour or so the sky began 
to darken, the Milky Way emerging like a photograph in 
a pan of chemicals.

My wife and I lasted till 5am. Our daughter stumbled 
back to the tent and hour or so earlier. I didn't bother 
with note-taking, choosing, instead, to enjoy the stars 
with my family, oo-ing, ah-ing and exclaiming "there's 
one!" at each other.

Compared to the previous weekend's meteor shower activity, 
the Aquarids were fewer while there seemed a few more 
Capricornids. The Perseids were slightly busier, and were 
usually brighter than those last weekend, typically 
displaying a train. The first meteor of the night was a 
bright Perseid, yellow, magnitude -1.0 to -2.0, and left 
a blue train in its wake which lasted a good 10 seconds.

It was a wonderful night beneath the stars, an occasional 
giggle and trill echoing in the woods, a wild turkey 
perhaps watching for meteors as well. (We wondered if it 
might be the very turkey we saw earlier in the day.) My 
and wife and I spent the last 45 minutes or so warming 
ourselves by the re-kindled campfire, gazing skyward for 
the handful of meteors we would see streaking over our 
small fire glowing in the night.

***** Non-meteor nature stuff *****

We returned to Lynx Prairie, hoping to share with our
daughter the wonders we stumbled into the previous 
weekend. While not as abundant, the butterflies were 
every bit as ubiquitous, one of the highlights this 
time being a cooperative Giant Swallowtail. Though 
things such as anthropology and evolution are what 
tops my daughter's ice cream, she couldn't help but be
utterly amazed at this palatable dose of nature.

On our Side Of the Hill the Swallowtails nectared
continuously on Ironweed (in bloom already!), showing
less interest in the Green-headed Coneflower (these
2 flowers, blooming together, were lovely splashes of 
yellow and purple). Skippers, a small species of 
butterfly with many varieties, seemed to enjoy the 
patches of Hyssop Skullcap.

Late in the day, as we relaxed on the front porch of 
the dilapidated 100 year old cabin, I noticed a 
rustling of foliage about 15 feet away (much of this
foliage is well over 6' tall). What I thought was 
probably a feeding Common Yellowthroat was, in fact,
a fawn, spotted and big-eyed. When it noticed us 
watching, it backed off quickly, but then resumed 
feeding about 20' away.





____
Even when it was, it wasn't, was it?

Gregg M. Pasterick
Special Contributor at the Prodigy Gardens (somebody has to pull 
weeds)
Kilbourne, Ohio

http://pages.prodigy.com/daddy
http://pages.prodigy.com/Mr.Natural

e-mail: YSZX29E@prodigy.com 
or
          ZQZK15A@prodigy.com