Random for Fun

I think I'll occasionally post some photographs just for fun, like this Belted Kingfisher. I took this in Phippsburg about a week ago. I think he's interesting on this pole with all the wires. Competition wildlife photography does not allow any 'hand of man' to be seen in a shot. Too bad. This is really cool!















These are Trout Lilies. They are a native wildflower. Phippsburg has millions of them. I rarely saw them in North Bath only 15 miles from here.

The American Lady butterfly, seen here on dandelions, was previously know as Hunter's Butterfly. It ranges from Nova Scotia to Mexico. This beautiful butterfly was originally given its name by the English aristocracy to honor an American of note in the early 1800s, John Dunn Hunter.

John Dunn Hunter, born c. 1798, claimed to have been kidnapped, then raised from infancy by Native Americans of the plains. He said he had been given the name "The Hunter" by the Native Americans for his skill at hunting. He said he never knew who his true parents were, so 'John Dunn' was the name he later chose for himself after that of a man who had been kind to him. With his proceeds from beaver trapping he funded his education and then wrote several books about his experiences with the Kickapoo, Kansas and Osage Indians. John Dunn Hunter eventually travelled to England where he became a darling of the nobility for his colorful background and interesting stories of life with the native Americans. He further ingratiated himself by gathering natural history artifacts, such as butterflies, from the United States to add to the collections of the English. It was eventually determined that his stories were fabricated when a Frenchman who was studying the idioms of the Native Americans discovered that John Dunn Hunter spoke none of the languages of those peoples with whom he had claimed to have spent his life! 'Outted' as one of the greatest conmen of his time, neither his former reputation, nor the name of the fabulous butterfly stuck. Each would morph several times, as is the nature of the butterfly,and the creative nature of man.