Friday, March 4, 2011

Sara orangetip ~ 03/04/11 ~ Pinnacles


Sara orangetip
Anthocharis sara

I happily and readily admit these are not the best photos. I have to laugh at how difficult it is to get a decent picture of a butterfly that rarely seems to rest or nectar on blooming plants. Shown in the first picture are milkmaids. I have a couple pics of just the tip of my shoe and initially wondered why before I remembered I was trying to capture the Sara orangetip on "film." I'm posting this as an ID, because during last year's visit to Pinnacles on May 6, 2010 I very much wanted to get a picture of an orangetip and failed spectacularly. One thing to note, I find a March through May flight period to be rather lengthy and wonder if there are two distinct broods in this area.

4 comments:

Imperfect and Tense said...

Some things are the same the world over.

Anthocharis cardamines, the Orange Tip butterfly in the UK, feeds on Cardamine pratensis, Cuckoo-flower (or Lady's Smock as us Northerners know it). It is equally difficult to photograph!

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Graeme, I looked up both your butterfly and flower and I'm amazed at the similarities.

Erica Lea said...

Thanks for posting this! I'm pretty sure these are the same butterflies I've been chasing around without success up in the foothills recently. They always seem to land just out of reach, and take off again too fast to really see. I just knew it was white with flashy orange wing tips.

Katie (Nature ID) said...

Erica, I'm glad I'm not the only one having a hard time capturing these quick moving butterflies.