American Lady migrant

This morning arrived beautiful, sunny, and with mid-summer warmth, and though I had vowed to stay at my desk and write—we had a birthday party to attend in the afternoon, so I needed to exercise some restraint and get some work done—virtue be damned. I drove down to Napatree to hike the beach. This wasn't, of course, entirely slacking off, for I have been trying to keep tabs on the Monarch Butterfly migration, and in my defense, it could well have been a perfect day to observe and photograph insects taking their leave. The Common Green Darner population, a fixture over the doomed meadow, has thinned out, and it was possible that there'd be lots of migratory inverts on the wing. At least, that was my excuse. And I wasn't entirely disappointed, for with the Seaside Goldenrod at just about peak, there was a steady stream of Monarchs passing in review and, on occasion, stopping to refuel. In about an hour, I counted more than a dozen, and though there were very few dragonflies in the procession west and south, there were a several other migrating butterflies. Among them was this American Lady, a very pretty species which is not all that common around here. It was also not all that cooperative about posing. With a little patience on my part, and a lot of persistence, I eventually found it taking a refueling break on the goldenrod. Thanks, Lady—and Godspeed.