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Sunday, January 5, 2020

In the winter sun

It was sunny and the air temperature was ~60°F (~15.5°C) around midday in Cotati today (5 January 2020).  While eating lunch, a movement caught my eye, and I was a little surprised to see a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) perched on the fence in our backyard.


I'm guessing this was an adult butterfly that had been overwintering nearby and felt warm enough to emerge to bask in the winter sun for a little while.
 

2 comments:

James Rutherford said...

Beautiful. It is sunny here today and a monarch is visiting my milk weed. Maybe I can get some caterpillars which survive being eaten by the Polistes exclamans

Alice Chan said...

Nice!! The most recent one we've had at the south end of Sebastopol was December 14th, and it was tattered in places.
This one of yours looks almost pristine!