Amy, Chad and the grandkids have been here for a couple of days now, and today was the first day that was pretty enough for us to get outside. Earlier in the week I had collected most of the leaves from this year's "crop" and piled it up in the back yard. Sentry and Roland Thomas had the best time running and jumping into the pile, but RT got tired and began another game. I had taken a few shots of the kids in the leaves, but noticed a butterfly resting in the weeds next to the leaf pile. Sentry and I slowly and (somewhat) quietly crept up and I got a fair shot of the insect. Suddenly, it flew up and landed on his shirt! I quickly snapped a picture, and then it was gone. Just that quick. You can see from the photo below that the little fellow's wings have taken quite a beating in his migration. His right lower wing seems to be very tattered and ragged.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~Red Admiral (Brushfoot)~~~~~~~~~~~~
I looked at the North American Butterfly Assn website, and matched my photo with their photo of a Red Admiral butterfly. Just a short time later, I noticed that two of them were chasing each other around the trees, but they were too high up and never landed. They just chased each other into the neighbor's yard and on about their merry way.
We did see another yellow butterfly, possibly a Cloudless Sulfur as best I could match with NABA. Good to know they're still around this far into winter.
Posts
