Common Checkered-Skipper on aster, Salt Lake County, UtahCommon Checkered-Skipper on aster – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1/2000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

I’m seeing far fewer butterflies than I was seeing just two weeks ago but the ones I am seeing now still delight me as they flutter around. Yesterday while hoping to photograph birds near home I spotted a small butterfly nectaring on some wild asters and attempted to photograph it, only one of the 20 or so images I took was sharp enough to present here on my blog and in my galleries because it kept fluttering its wings and there was wind blowing the asters around.

This is a Common Checkered-Skipper and can be found in most of the U.S., some southern parts of Canada and northern Mexico. I am not sure of the sex of the Common Checkered-Skipper or the species of aster it is nectaring on. Common Checkered-Skippers, also known as Common Checkered Skippers without the hyphen, are spread-winged skippers and are considered to be the most common skipper in North America.

Blooming Asters in Salt Lake CountyBlooming Asters in Salt Lake County – Nikon D500, f8, 1/1600, ISO 400, -1.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light

There was another clump of asters near a section of the pond that was shadowed while the asters were lit up by the afternoon light and I knew that if I photographed the blooming asters that it would look like they had a black background. I quite like the drama the black background added to this frame. This may be a Western Mountain Aster (Symphyotrichum spathulatum) but I am really unsure of that ID.

Even though I didn’t take any bird images yesterday afternoon I came home with some wildflowers photos and a Common Checkered-Skipper which is still a thing with wings.

Life is good.

Mia

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