When I began searching for butterflies, favorites and less favorite butterflies followed. After seeing thousands of Eastern Tailed Blues and thousands of Pearl Crescents, I became saturated, eventually passing them on trails, without stopping to examine or admire or to  gaze. Oddly, Spicebush swallowtails now bring minimal excitement to me, though I’ve planted Sassafras to lure them in (?).

My 20,000th Silver-spotted Skipper butterfly too found me less than excited when I meet one. Yesterday, the closely related Hoary Edge Skippers we saw at Piedmont National Wildlife Refuge (Juliette, Georgia) excited me, for they are rarely seen, and yesterday they were beautifully tinted and so very fresh.

Here’s a Long-tailed Skipper butterfly seen at the Butterflies & Blooms Briar Patch Habitat in Eatonton, Georgia. Know that each and every one that I see rivets my attention. Why? I’ve only begun seeing them in 2015, so they’re newish to me. For reasons not fully clear to me, I have this desire to find ever fresher Long-Tailed Butterlies, fresher yet than I’ve ever seen.

I go with these impulses, trying hard to not examine them any more than I have to.

Long-tailed Skippers, bring them on, please.

Jeff