Butterfly visitors

Oh butterflies, how we missed you!

Here a Common Hairstreak Strymon melinus is checking the blossom of a ground cover plant next to the native patch. The tiny lavender colored blossoms and leaves of the ground cover look quite large from the perspective of the butterfly.

The same hairstreak viewed from a rear angle, as it sips nectar from a clover blossom.

The black-pupilled red spot on the tips of the hind wings is considered to be a "false head" that diverts predators from its real body.

A Gulf Fritillary Agraulis vanillae sipping nectar from a blossom on the Berzerkeley salvia shrub.