Author Archives: Brenda Clements Jones

About Brenda Clements Jones

Brenda is a certified Virginia Master Naturalist, a Habitat Defender for Shenandoah National Park, and a devoted fan of Mother Nature. She lives in a cabin in the Blue Ridge Mountains near Shenandoah National Park, and hikes up to the higher elevations of her mountain often to see what nature is up to. Her constant hiking companion is a camera that captures nature as it unfolds through the seasons. It’s her goal to share the natural world around her through her photographs.

Eastern Tiger Swallowtails Do Not Migrate

The Virginia state insect, the Eastern Tiger Swallowtail (Papilio glaucus) doesn’t migrate but hunkers down in leaf litter as a chrysalis and waits out the winter in a state much like hibernation, called diapause.

I don’t have any photographs of the chrysalis stage of the Tiger Swallowtail, but do have an image of a caterpillar stage. From this stage the Swallowtail will transform into a chrysalis. Often this stage will be in leaf litter. And as spring arrives, on a schedule of its own, a Tiger Swallowtail butterfly will emerge.

In a couple months, as you are contemplating cleaning up your autumn and winter gardens, keep in mind there are possibly all sorts of overwintering critters staying snug and warm in that precious leaf litter. A perfectly tidy garden may not be the best thing!

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Camouflage Maven

Quite the magician when it comes to changing color. Three species of Crab Spider (Thomisidae) have the ability to perform this amazing change, and it is only the female of the species.

This school bus yellow Crab Spider is perched on Goldenrod (Solidago), awaiting her unsuspecting dinner to come by.

These Crab Spiders normally change from white to yellow, or yellow to white, but on occasion will also become a pale green. In the picture above the Spider in its white coloration is on Queen Anne’s Lace (Daucus carota).

It is a quicker transformation for the Crab Spider to go from yellow to white since it will excrete the yellow pigment stored in its glands. Going from white to yellow requires the spider to produce yellow pigment to change color. This also explains why it takes 10 to 25 days to change from white to yellow, while changing from yellow to white only takes approximately 6 days.

Wow! Nature is so intriguing!

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A Look Of Things To Come

Winged Sumac (Rhus copallina), putting on a display appropriate for the end of summer. Many shades of green, including chartreuse, yellows melting into orange, orange becoming red. Luscious autumnal colors. Happening now. Not the entire expanse of leaves but just here and there. Oh, season change! I LOVE IT!

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American Lady On Lavender

So many stunning butterflies. This is one of those beauties. An American Lady (Vanessa virginiensis). These three images, the same butterfly on Lavender. Mmm, can you smell it?!

The American Lady has a wide distribution, found from southern Canada, down into the United States, and further into northern South America. Somehow some manage to be seen in Europe, Hawaii, and some of the Caribbean Islands.

As butterflies, American Ladies live a short life of six to twenty days. During that time they feed on flower nectar of Dogbane, Aster, Goldenrod, Marigold, Pearly Everlasting, Common Milkweed, and other flowers.

Decorating roadsides, sunny open spots, gardens, old fields, meadows, forest clearings, and stream beds, during their short life.

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Trying To Be Patient

Sitting here twiddling my thumbs as my computer works with my external hard drive, which is filled with my many, many, many photographs. There are inconsistencies (groan) that it is dealing with. This will take hours to fix. In the meantime, here are a couple pictures that are a treasure to me. A baby Common Box Turtle (Terrapene carolina), that GrandCamper and I found two years ago.

Take a look at the post I made, back on June 21, 2021, about this little turtle and the adventure GrandCamper and I had turtle-wise that day. You can find it at brendaclem.com/baby-common-box-turtle/. Enjoy the reading, and the pictures, they’re very special to me!

To Each His Own

Butterflies on the road going up the mountain. The one on the left a Red-spotted Purple (Limenitis arthemis), the one on the right a Great Spangled Fritillary (Speyeria cybele).

Both these butterflies love to hang out at mud puddles, rotting fruit, and in this case, on scat. All are a source of nutrients for the winged creatures. To each his own!

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Pennsylvania Leatherwing

Pennsylvania Leatherwing (Chauliognathus pensylvanicus). A member of the Soldier Beetle family, Cantharidae. Native to North America.

These Leatherwings are on Wild Ageratum (Eupatorium coelestinum), though I’ve read their favorite color is yellow, such as Goldenrod. I guess they are not that particular.

They are considered a great pollinator. And they love to eat aphids, as well as grasshopper eggs, caterpillars, mealybugs and many other garden pests.

I’m glad to have these beetles around, helping out with pollination and pest control.

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Persimmons In The Rain

As I sit typing out this post, it’s raining. A splendid rain. More than an inch of it so far. My trees, my gardens, my newly planted natives are all out there dancing.

I took a moment earlier this afternoon to get a couple pictures of Persimmons (Diospyros virginiana) soaking up that rain. These are native trees that grow aplenty throughout the woods up here. Their native range is the eastern and midwestern United States.

A small fruit compared to what you might find at the grocery store, those larger ones will be Asian Persimmons.

These trees have a handsome, blocky bark, that I love to see.

As the calendar pages get flipped to October and autumn, the Persimmons will be dropping to the ground, delighting butterflies that enjoy rotting fruit, such as Commas and Question Marks, and our bears that love to eat the fruit, seeds and all.

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Wild Petunia

Wild Petunia (Ruellia) is in bloom right now. It’s native to the eastern and central United States. It isn’t particular about the location where it grows. Moist, dry, sun, partial shade, most any soil type.

In bloom May to October. I’ve seen these flowers growing wild at the yoga studio where I can often be found. It is quite the pretty native flower.

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