One of the real joys of getting out on the trail is a chance to see the new and the unexpected. (To be sure, seeing the old and the expected species is another kind of joy.) So when I was exploring the meadow below the trailhead at Lantern Hill, which I would soon climb for the umpteen millionth time, I was expecting to spot the first emerging orchids belonging to the Ladies'-tresses group. These little gems, whose small flowers are often arrayed in corkscrews up a main stem, hadn't emerged yet, but there was something else intriguing on the abundant Yarrow. I knew this gorgeous small butterfly instantly—it was a Common Buckeye—but the only place I'd ever seen them in our area was along the Napatree Point beach in September, when the butterfly migration season was in full swing. Buckeyes leave the North and the cold in late summer, and spend the winter moths in snowbird country. Come spring, a new Junonia coenia generation heads to our region to lay eggs on Toadflax, Plaintain, and other plants their caterpillars love to eat. It's too early to start migrating, so I'm guessing that this splendid and thoroughly unexpected adult is still in the business of crafting the traveling generation.