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Neil Björklund
Sep 27, 20205 min read
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...
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Neil Björklund
Sep 15, 20209 min read
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...
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Neil Björklund
Aug 5, 20206 min read
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...
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Neil Björklund
Jul 28, 20205 min read
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...
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Neil Björklund
Jul 7, 20205 min read
Windswept
Andy Warren describes the habitat of the Nevada Skipper (Hesperia nevada) as dry, windblown summits of peaks and ridges, usually above...
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Neil Björklund
Jun 29, 20206 min read
La Garita Escondida
Back in 2004, I saw one Garita Skipperling (Oarisma garita) in what was then an unkempt lawn in front of an abandoned motel in Minam...
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Neil Björklund
Jun 15, 20206 min read
An Eight Dollar Deal
Just west of the town of Selma in Josephine County, Oregon is a rounded butte called Eight Dollar Mountain. Some say the name comes from...
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Neil Björklund
Jun 8, 20205 min read
The Weeping Rocks of Oregon Mountain
According to California lepidopterist Ken Davenport, author of Butterflies of the Sierra Nevada, the Western Cloudywing is one of our...
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Neil Björklund
May 31, 20207 min read
The Gold-Hunters
When I packed up my Subaru and headed down to Jackson County to visit Kinney Creek this past week, I'd forgotten about the mining claims...
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Neil Björklund
May 15, 20204 min read
A Lingering Spring
For Oregon lepidopterists, butterfliers and butterfly photographers, spring is the time to venture into stream and river canyons in...
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Neil Björklund
May 7, 20203 min read
Small is Beautiful
That is the title of a 1973 book by E.F. Schumacher that was very influential for me when I was in my early 20's. It gave me the...
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Neil Björklund
Apr 28, 20203 min read
Clouds and Frost, #158!
It isn't often that I get to write about actually finding and photographing an Oregon butterfly species that I haven't photographed...
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Neil Björklund
Apr 26, 20204 min read
Dreaming of a White Spring
The Illinois River valley in Josephine County may well have more species of white butterflies in early spring than any other part of...
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Neil Björklund
Apr 10, 20203 min read
A Spring Ritual
Welcome back to the Butterflies of Oregon blog! Now that spring has arrived in the Willamette Valley, you will be seeing periodic...
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Neil Björklund
Dec 18, 20192 min read
An Early Holiday Gift
Yesterday, I was at the central Oregon Coast, enjoying spectacular sunny, warm weather and great bird sightings. I went in hopes of...
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Neil Björklund
Sep 6, 20192 min read
Fields of Green and Gold
With only 12 Oregon butterfly species yet to photograph, you might expect that each one takes me further into the remote and rugged wilds...
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Neil Björklund
Jul 19, 20192 min read
In The Ditch
I don't know why Ditch Creek in the Blue Mountains of Morrow County is so-named. It's really quite a lovely little stream, meandering...
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Neil Björklund
Jul 18, 20192 min read
The Oregon 12
A little more than a year ago, I wrote "As of June 6, 2018, I have 14 species remaining to photograph in Oregon. If I'm lucky, I will be...
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Neil Björklund
Jun 12, 20193 min read
A Really Big Bear
It was the biggest black bear I'd ever seen in Oregon... But I'll get to that in a minute. First, let's talk butterflies! I made a...
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Neil Björklund
May 16, 20193 min read
A Fertile Crescent
I'd only seen the Pale Crescent (Phyciodes pallida) one time in Oregon, or anywhere for that matter. And I only saw one of them. It was...
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