Vanessa Atalanta

       
We had an afternoon visitor to our butterfly ranch—probably just checking the place out. We have two sets of lovely, healthy, and delicious cone flowers, and this butterfly, better known as Red Admiral, lingered for forty-five minutes inspecting at least half of them from very close up. This must be the migration season for this butterfly species. I saw another of its members fifty miles from here on the shore of Wolverine Lake. I was sitting on the porch and it landed on the stairs heading down to the grass—and lingered there for a long enough time for me to memorize its markings. The sad thing is that Rancho Mariposa is ill equipped to host the Red Admiral. Our cafeteria delights this species—but it likes to leave its eggs on stinging nettle; so far as I can determine we don’t have this plant on our grounds…