Tag Archives: payson

treasure hunt

As promised, here are more photos from Saturday’s hike in Payson. In the first photo below, look for an arrow that shows just how tiny most of the butterflies were. The outing was a real treasure hunt! If I hadn’t been with people who knew what to look for, I’m sure I would have passed right by these little guys.

Above photo has arrow indicating the size of the tiny butterfly
Above photo has arrow indicating the size of the tiny butterfly

The next photo is a close-up of what we saw.
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It was a treat to see the following caterpillar. After scouring my books and the internet, I’m guessing this is a Black Swallowtail Caterpillar. I also deduced this because we saw them on the trail. I included the only shot I got.
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Update re this black butterfly. It is a Red Spotted Admiral also called Red Spotted Purple. As for the caterpillar, I still think it’s Black Swallowtail.

Click below to go to a slideshow of my best butterfly shots. The wind made getting sharp images a challenge so it was exciting to capture what I did. I also included a few shots of some bugs and flowers. Click on the the large photos to go to the next in line. The caption identifies them. I welcome corrections!

Update: corrections have been made. Thanks Janet! 🙂

Colonel Devlin Trail Butterflies

colonel devlin and railroad tunnel trail

If you remember how excited I got when I found out about Rackensack Canyon, you have a feeling for how great I thought yesterday’s hike was! We went on the Colonel Devlin Trail starting at Washington Park Trailhead outside of Payson. TONS of flowers I’ve never seen. Most were just starting to bloom so there’s still plenty of time to photograph them. You’re following a stream much of the way which is thick with yellow Columbine on the banks right now. I hope to go back before they’re gone. For a photographer, I would call this an all day trip.

We ended up finding 26 varieties of butterflies. The wind made it difficult to get sharp photos of them all but I do have quite a few. I hope to create a slideshow this afternoon for Monday’s post. In the meantime, here are a couple of photos.

The trail is steep in places but not difficult if you go slowly
The trail is steep in places but not difficult if you go slowly

This was the coolest plant we saw. Stalks about 3 feet tall.
This was the coolest plant we saw. Stalks about 3 feet tall.