This swallowtail butterfly looks like it was startled by me last Wednesday at Ferne Clyffe State Park in southern Illinois near Goreville. It's sweetening up on swamp milkweed blossoms along the edge of the 16-acre Ferne Clyffe Lake. I saw plenty of butterflies as I hiked through much of the park's forest and along the lake's one-mile shoreline. More than 700 species of plants grow in Ferne Clyffe, including many varieties of wildflowers, so you can see all kinds of butterflies, bees and birds. I saw a lot of whitetail deer. The park, which has welcomed visitors for almost 100 years, also offers such sights as a 100-foot seasonal waterfall and the Hawks' Cave, which is really a 150-foot-long shelter bluff.
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