The Butterflies that get away (SWF)

Gray-headed Coneflower

The Ancient Trail
Battelle Darby Creek Metro Park

Just beyond this rise, on broad beautiful wings, a Giant Swallowtail weaves a path back and forth, into dim woods and out again, a needle through fabric--the black above flashing strongly, light beneath it, splashed with color. Like a small bird, she leads me from one to the next skipping along this edge, then suddenly plunges within and is gone.
Never before have I seen one, so large of these least common swallowtails—
yet there could be no other, her color, her size, her form.

Even on this bright afternoon, where the flowers of the field stand under strong sunshine, the woods lining this river basin are cool and dark, protected.
Tall stands of Pale Jewelweed dangle their yellow blossoms at eye-level.
Tap me on the shoulder as I pass.
They, too, are not the ordinary—
the commoner I’ve left at home.

Pale jewelweed, Impatiens pallida

Orange jewelweed, Impatiens capensis

Resting on a leaf beside the trail through these dark woods, a dragonfly finishes his dinner—a smaller damsel, with coal-black, lifeless wings.
Steady he stays, as I stand closely watching.
Beauty on wings—
some captured, some lost.

Black-shouldered Spinyleg, Dromogomphus spinosus
eating Ebony Jewelwing

See more Skywatch here.