It’s so wonderful to see the butterflies starting to migrate back to Cape Cod. The first ones that we’ve seen are the Cabbage White butterflies.
The Cabbage White butterfly got its name because its favorite host plant for laying eggs are cabbages and because the adults are white.
Have you seen any butterflies this season?
We were hiking along the Nauset Marsh Trail when we saw this flicker of something shining on one of the tall reeds by the side of the trail. It looked like a dragonfly so we clicked away. (Click on blog link for other photo.)
It is a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly which is a brightly colored dragonfly that lives in the eastern United States. It gets its name from its orange colored wings which have dark brown bands marking them. It is often seen perched on tips of vegetation near the edges of a waterway, which is exactly where we saw it.
What an treat and a first for us! Have you ever seen a Halloween Pennant Dragonfly?
I hadn’t seen a Little Wood Satyr butterfly in a couple of years and this one was stunning. It landed on a leaf on the side of the Doane Rock Trail to Coast Guard Beach.
The Little Wood Satyr butterfly lives on woodland edges as well as salt marshes, which explains why we saw it there on that trail.
Gorgeous, isn’t it? I love its markings…
I saw a little flutter of blue along the trail and was hoping it was one of the early butterflies of the season here on Cape Cod, the Spring Azure. (Click on blog link for other photos.)
It was a Spring Azure and I was in for a treat as it flitted about the trail for quite a quite while we clicked away. You can see how vivid the blue is when the butterfly has its wings extended, and then how so dramatically different it is when its sings are folded.
Have you ever seen a Spring Azure butterfly? So pretty, don’t you think?
