Butterflies Dancing Over Hay Fields

     Annually, in the middle of August, I drive through croplands around New Holland, Pennsylvania to see hay fields of alfalfa with pale lavender blooms and red clover that have pink blossoms.  Alfalfa and red clover are plants originally from Europe, but are sowed and harvested in North America for food for cattle, horses and other livestock.
     The flowers of these hay plants are pretty in themselves, and alfalfa blossoms have a sweet scent.  And some hay fields have both alfalfa and red clover in them, making lovely bouquets of blooms.  But those flowering plants are also interesting in the creatures that live among them, mostly the insects that sip nectar from their pretty blossoms.
     The time of insects in this area is July through September, with a peak of insect activities in mid-August.  At that time fields of alfalfa and red clover in flower shimmer with the erratic wanderings of hundreds of white and yellow butterflies that drink nectar from the blooms of those hay plants and the swift flights of dozens of post-breeding barn swallows and tree swallows that are after small, flying insects.  Those butterflies, mostly cabbage whites and clouded sulphurs that are originally from Europe, and the native swallows are entertaining and inspiring in their numbers and activities.  They are always a joy to see dancing in the sunlight over the fields.     
     Some other types of insects that sip nectar from alfalfa and red clover flowers include several each of silver-spotted skippers and tiger-swallowtailed butterflies, and some each of spicebush swallowtails, black swallowtails, monarch butterflies, carpenter bees and bumble bees.  A few kinds of grasshoppers eat the leaves of the plants and green darner dragonflies catch and eat small insects that fly among the blooms and land on them to sip nectar.  All those insects add to the beauties and intrigues of hay fields when they are in flower.
     Interestingly, I can determine what habitats surround hay fields by noting the butterflies on hay field blossoms.  That is because the caterpillars of many kinds of butterflies consume only one or two kinds of plants.  Silver-spotted skipper larvae, for example, and white-tailed deer, consume soybean leaves.  Soybean fields are near hay fields here in southeastern Pennsylvania.  Tiger swallowtail butterfly larvae feed on a variety of tree leaves.  Tiger swallowtail-tailed butterflies are most common in hay fields near deciduous woods.  Spicebush swallow-tailed butterfly caterpillars ingest spicebush and sassafras leaves in woodland under-stories.  Spicebush swallowtails in hay fields indicate those two kinds of woody plants are somewhere nearby.  Monarch caterpillars eat only milkweeds, so those native plants must be nearby, too.  And they are, mostly along roadsides and in abandoned fields.
     Eventually hay fields are cut for hay to feed farm livestock.  Then the butterflies must fly elsewhere to get nectar from flowers, though the swallows had a great time catching insects stirred up by the machinery in the hay fields.
     Hay fields have several beauties and intrigues during summer, especially around the middle of August when the most insects are the most active getting food, including nectar from alfalfa and red clover blooms.  For enjoyment and inspiration, watch for swarms of butterflies and other creatures in hay fields that have gone to flower.