Suddenly, skippers!

[Josh]

Howdy leppers,

I guess I should complain more often. The day before yesterday I noted in a post here that I’d had very few skippers in our yard this year. Less than 24 hours later, I photographed two within a couple of meters of our front door, nectaring together on my wife’s lavender.

One was a duskywing, identified on iNaturalist as Wild Indigo. This was my suspicion as well, as we have a few Baptisia and several native lupines growing in our little meadow. I had to chase it around the yard for a bit as it visited Echinacea purpurea flowers before it settled more cooperatively on the lavender:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/297928815

The other was a grass-skipper, officially unidentified so far. iNat’s AI is suggesting Dun, which often seems to be the most common skipper in our yard, though this individual seems a bit more brightly marked than most. Human ID suggestions would be welcome:

https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/297929038

Cheers,

Josh


Joshua S. Rose, Ph.D.
Amherst, MA
https://www.inaturalist.org/observations/opihiman
https://www.facebook.com/opihi

Writer/compiler, Bird Observer
https://www.birdobserver.org/

Columnist, “Earth Matters”
https://www.gazettenet.com/search?bodysearch=earth+matters
https://www.hitchcockcenter.org/category/earth-matters/

Vice-president, Hampshire Bird Club
https://hampshirebirdclub.org/

Northeast Chapter head, Dragonfly Society of the Americas
https://www.dragonflysocietyamericas.org/northeastdsa