Yes, We have Volcanos!
I've been known to describe my avocation of chasing butterflies in Oregon as a game played on the huge game board of the state of...
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Neil Björklund
- Sep 15
- 7 min
Wave the Checkered Flag!
I first started looking for the enigmatic Checkered White (Pontia protodice) back in 2004, at Picture Rock Pass, in Lake County. It was,...
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Neil Björklund
- Sep 9
- 7 min
Let's Go Dutch!
Nope, I'm not talking about coffee--I'm talking about the peak in southern Oregon. You know, Dutchman Peak, in the Siskiyous. It was...
99 views2 comments
Neil Björklund
- Aug 28
- 5 min
Loving Leona
Leona's Blue (Philotiella leona) is Oregon's only known endemic butterfly. It has been found only in the pumice flats created by the...
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Neil Björklund
- Aug 18
- 8 min
The Bigfoot of Butterflies
We humans tend to love stories about mysterious critters that may or may not exist or persist out in the wild places. The Northwest's...
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Neil Björklund
- Aug 12
- 7 min
A Double Scoop of Rocky Road
Back in May I visited a few of the sites where Andy Warren had studied azure blues back in the early 2000's. At several sites, mostly in...
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Neil Björklund
- Aug 3
- 8 min
The Art of Waiting
The Nevada Skipper flies very fast and low in treeless habitats on windswept ridges. When the wind is gusting they can just disappear...
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Neil Björklund
- Jun 7
- 11 min
A Boy and His Butterfly
Earlier this spring, I learned in an unexpected way about an obscure disease called 4H Leukodystrophy. It is an inherited genetic...
277 views4 comments
Neil Björklund
- Apr 29
- 9 min
Searching for Spring
This year, just when we seemed to be heading for the most severe drought in Oregon history, winter seemed to wake up and say "oh, wait...
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Neil Björklund
- Aug 15, 2021
- 5 min
Silverspotting
The Oregon Silverspot (Argynnis zerene hippolyta) is a subspecies of the Zerene Fritillary (Argynnis zerene), found along the Oregon...
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Neil Björklund
- Aug 8, 2021
- 12 min
Puttin' on the Frits
Here in Oregon, as summer pushes on into July and early August, we get into smoke season, but we also get into the season of nymphalids...
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Neil Björklund
- Jul 14, 2021
- 10 min
The Mysterious Case of the Vanishing Checkerspot
I was packing for a trip to the southern Blue Mountains to (hopefully) photograph Garita Skipperlings for the first time, when I got the...
190 views2 comments
Neil Björklund
- Jul 10, 2021
- 8 min
The Tao of Skipperlings
The Taoist Masters of old speak of the principle of Wu wei, or non-doing, as being central to their way of understanding how the world is...
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Neil Björklund
- Jun 27, 2021
- 13 min
Heat Zombie and the Bakeoven Butterflies
As a second generation native Oregonian, I have always felt some kind of civic duty to photograph the Oregon Swallowtail, our state insect..
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Neil Björklund
- Jun 6, 2021
- 6 min
Hunting for the Gold
Isn't it curious how sometimes when we are looking for one thing, we often find something else that is equally satisfying?
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Neil Björklund
- May 3, 2021
- 5 min
Chasing Our Swallowtail
My 2021 field season started quite a bit later than I'd planned, and sadly I had to skip a trip to the Illinois River in April in search...
187 views3 comments
Neil Björklund
- Sep 27, 2020
- 5 min
Seeking Answers In The High Places
It's 10 am on August 23, and I've just arrived at the bottom of the tramway that climbs 3,300 feet up to the top of Mount Howard, in the...
190 views0 comments
Neil Björklund
- Sep 15, 2020
- 9 min
I Got Those Low-down, High Elevation Blues
Andy Warren's monumental review of Oregon's butterflies (Butterflies of Oregon, Their Taxonomy, Distribution and Biology) not only has...
230 views0 comments
Neil Björklund
- Aug 5, 2020
- 6 min
The 600 Club
In American major league baseball, the group of players who have hit 600 or more career home runs is an elite and very small group. Just...
201 views1 comment
Neil Björklund
- Jul 28, 2020
- 5 min
The Sternitzky Effect
The Mountain Parnassian is a denizen of steep, high elevation meadows with rocky outcroppings that support its host plants in the genus...
280 views1 comment