Live Simply Dye Often: Butterflies & Dragonflies at Big Creek Conservation Area, Missouri

Sunday, June 30, 2013

Butterflies & Dragonflies at Big Creek Conservation Area, Missouri

While hiking in Yosemite this summer, I realized how much I was testing the patience of my traveling companions every time I stopped to watch and photograph a butterfly. (On a previous hiking trip my dad made a joke about how I needed to have a bumper sticker on my back that says "I brake for butterflies" because I kept stopping and he kept running into me.) Well, this summer I decided that I should do my best to go out on my own photographing expeditions around the state where I could explore and stop to view butterflies without angering anyone. Yesterday I took that first step.

(click on photos to enlarge)

In Northeast Missouri, I spent about an hour in the Big Creek Conservation Area. I had the place completely to myself - which was not surprising as access was a gravel road and there really isn't much to do out there. My plan was to hike part of the Thousand Hills Trail and to see as many butterflies as I could. Though I'm not sure I ever found the real trail, to my surprise and complete delight, I saw several butterflies and dragonflies within ten feet of entering a dirt road at the end of the Rainbow Basin Trail road. I did not go far - thankfully as a sunny day quickly became a rainy day - but relished in the scent of wildflowers, listening to the wind whistle through the grasses, and enjoyed the peace and serenity of the scene.

I saw several crescent butterflies puddling in the patches of dirt road, and a couple of sulphurs who refused to let me get anywhere close to them. I also saw several species of dragonflies, and though I've not really attempted to get many pictures of these creatures before, I decided they fit the bill this stime. I tried to discover the names for all of the insects I photoed, but had little luck with some. Ones I really wasn't sure of are in parenthesis: