Driving in the Delta

I drove up 61 into the Mississippi Delta on July 15. My mission was to see the annual butterfly invasion in Delta National Wildlife Area. There is a service road that enters the area from up around Valley Park and Cary and I figured that would give me a good idea if they had arrived yet. They had. But it was not as I expected. I have never seen that many small butterflies in all my life. They look like dust rising in the road ahead of your vehicle. Every once in a while there would be clumps of bigger butterflies. Getting photos of those clumps is hard, let me tell you. I shot a few photos of some of the bigger butterflies, including the fellow at the top, but finally gave up on taking photos and just enjoyed walking among the butterflies. I did not drive too far down the service road, because it felt like I would be killing hundreds of the little fellas as I drove. The guilt would not let me go any further, because I hate to kill a butterfly, much less scores of them.

The second photo is a storm I watched go over me near Onward on the way to Delta National. It was real low to the ground and was awesome to watch pass over. I could hear some rumblings of thunder, but never saw any lightning.

I decided to explore some side roads near Cary and found Mr. Turtle crossing the road. I got a blanket out of the truck, threw it on the ground in front of Mr. Turtle and saw how close I could get to him with a 100mm macro lens. Mr. Turtle did not appreciate this. I am just so glad that no one came down the road while I was lying in the middle of the road on a blanket with my camera in the face of Mr. Turtle. That would have been awkward to explain. I could not get Mr. Turtle to smile for the picture.