Later in the day, under a sunny, deep-blue sky, I went out looking for butterflies, but found many fewer than I\u2019d hoped. I couldn\u2019t find even one in our own yellow-blooming lantana, and on the edge of a neighbor\u2019s yard \u2013 where five big mounds of orange and pink lantana grow more than five feet tall \u2013 there were only a few more. Some small Fiery Skippers, one flashy orange Gulf Fritillary, one Long-tailed Skipper with its smudged turquoise body. Along the old field, a scattering of lemon-yellow Cloudless Sulphurs fluttered over the weeds, and one Red-spotted Purple flew past me, flashing the iridescent-blue in its wings. But overall \u2013 distressingly few. <\/p>\n\n\n\n
Back at home, I stopped to check out our lantana again, and at first saw only leaves and yellow flowers and one bumblebee \u2013 then one very small shape caught my eye, a stray glint of light. It was a tiny, silver-gray butterfly that used to be common here, but I haven\u2019t seen in a very long time \u2013 a Gray Hairstreak. It was not very fluttery, and sat for long periods on each yellow bloom, with its wings folded up demurely, so I was able to kneel down and see it well.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At first glance almost insubstantial and plain in its twilight color, with a closer look, a Gray Hairstreak becomes a delight of intricate and colorful detail. The silver-gray wings are marked on the underside with dark, wavering patterns edged with white; the wing edges all around are finely lined with black and white. On the back edge of the wings, a patch of orange and black creates an eyespot. And tiny, threadlike \u201ctails\u201d extend from the wings, with small, round, bright-white tips. Together, the eyespot and the tails of a Gray Hairstreak create the illusion of a \u201chead\u201d that is thought to draw a predator\u2019s attention away from the butterfly\u2019s real head \u2013 so if it\u2019s attacked, it might only lose a part of the back of its wings, and survive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
I watched for several minutes as it probed one bloom for a while, and then another, and another \u2013rubbing its folded wings together in a way that made the wispy tails tremble \u2013 and finally fluttered away. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Later in the day, under a sunny, deep-blue sky, I went out looking for butterflies, but found many fewer than I\u2019d hoped. I couldn\u2019t find even one in our own yellow-blooming lantana, and on the edge of a neighbor\u2019s yard \u2013 where five big mounds of orange and pink lantana grow more than five feet […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[1],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=2237"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2239,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2237\/revisions\/2239"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=2237"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=2237"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/birdingnotes.sigridsanders.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=2237"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}