There are many bigger and showier butterflies around Seattle but skippers are still my favorites. In my childhood, they represented the ultimate test of steady hand and speed when I would sneak up on them and catch them by pinching their wings between my thumb and forefinger. Not my proudest conservation moment, but it brought me joy at the time and the captives all flew away.
When I was in the garden on a hot, sunny day this weekend, I saw the first skipper of the year on a non-native aster in my memory garden.
Here is the drama queen of the local butterflies, the western swallowtail. This one is on another non-native plant, the perennial phlox near our driveway. There aren’t enough native plants blooming in my yard yet to attract these butterflies, but maybe next year.
It seems like moths contribute a lot more to local food webs than their glamorous butterfly cousins. The number of moths in the garden this year is impressive. I’m not sure if there are really more moths or if I’m just noticing them more because I’m obsessed with them this year. Below are some recent moth discoveries here at the house.
Moth names are fun, too:
Common rustic, brown-lined looper, fruit tree tortrix, garden rose tortrix, dusky raisin, tissue, four-spotted yellow neck, small gray, common pug, vagabond sod, oak lantern, holly tortrix, hedge rustic, privet twist, thicket knot-horn, shy cosmet, small dusty wave, single-dotted wave, cork moth, and maple looper are a few names of those pictured above.