Camouflage
Nature’s wonders are often right in front of us. For example, this painted lady butterfly was flitting about and I thought I’d get a snap. As I looked through the viewfinder, I had to blink as the butterfly seemed to disappear as I was trying to focus on it.
It took a few moments for me to realize what the butterfly was doing. In an instant, it could pull up its wings and essentially blend in with the background to confound predators.
For a few moments I simply watched as the creature sat wings open for all the world to see, then quickly pulled them up to blend into the background.
It wasn’t as if I couldn’t tell from where I stood that the painted lady was still there, but for a bird on the hunt for fat insects, it was damn good camouflage.
As I watched, the creature flipped its wings up for a few moments then let them down again. In the bright sun and dry clay soil of the riverbank, the butterfly almost disappeared when it pulled its wings up. From more than a couple meters away, it blended into the background so completely that it became very easy to miss.
