The friendly Umber Skipper

Another cheerful Umber Skipper Poanes melane in the garden, this time perched on the top of a Chiapas flower stem.

There are many of these skippers visiting our garden all day. They seem to be very curious because sometimes when I am taking photos in the garden, they will land on a plant directly in front of me, and remain for several minutes.

Because these lovely creatures are in abundance in the garden, I was very surprised to learn recently that although they are common in parts of the Bay Area, they are generally uncommon in the area, even rare.

They breed on native grasses, two to three times during the season, from April through October.

After that they seem to disappear in the winter months and emerge again during the spring.