That day again in June 2017, when after lingering a bit too long at something that caught my eye, I found myself Totally Separated from the small group I was part of. Descending into a mood I am not now  proud of, I called for a quorum of  experts, and me, myself and I fulfilled that call. We (all the I’s) concluded that I was ditched by the group, and an unfortunately ‘bad’ word or two was uttered. That silly business over with, I decided, What the Heck! I’m always alone on trails, naturally, so go ahead into Kamama Prairie Preserve (privately held land) and make the best of it.

Make the best of it?? It turned from silly drama (mine alone) to Holy Cow! I took the trail around the perimeter of this goodly sized prairie, and spotted a Northern metalmark butterfly. The day before, nearby, in Lynx Prairie, I had seen my first ever Northern. This new day, a second, now a third . . . until I had seen way more than 40, and stopped counting. A sizable flight of these tiny artworks, some nectaring, others resting upon broad leaves, some in the verge near the forest edge, others in the open prairie.

This Northern is at rest upon a prairie daisy. They are so tiny, and prefer being close to the ground, that my Macro- lens work demands that I stoop way down to the ground. Avoiding camera sway was constant, but this time, my New ISM lens was there to enable some fair images to be captured.

I sure did get some share of those nifty ‘metallic’ lines that parallel one another, along the outer margins of forewings and hindwing.

Later I found the group, kept telling myself (internally) to not mention the regrettable thoughts I had earlier, and so restrained, learned that they did . . . not see more than a couple of this winged beauties. Jeff, still growing up.

Adams County, southernmost Ohio.

Jeff