Check out those eyes! Gray hairstreak, photo’d by Will Kerling, 6-16-13.
Outliers and oddball individuals — the rare and hard-to-find, the wildly-lost strays, the early emergers, and the late, last survivors — tend to become the focus of attention in butterflyers’ conversations (and on this blog). It’s good to remember, therefore, that the creatures that drew most of us into chasing butterflies in the first place were the everyday “ordinary” ones. Aren’t they beautiful?
Thanks to Will Kerling and his close-up photography, we can appreciate this freshly-emerged gray hairstreak — as delightful and as eye-catching as any rarity.
Dorsal view of gray hairstreak, photo by Will Kerling, 6-16-13.
How close can you get? Gray hairstreak “tails” photo’d by Will Kerling, 6-16-13.
Let’s all take a good, long look at the next “ordinary” butterfly we are lucky enough to come upon!
jc