Day 2 of Retirement

Well, things are looking up. My cough is disappearing again--after not being in the office for two and a half days. I've quit eating everything in sight, and I've actually done a lot of work clearing out clutter in my condo.

Best of all, because I had some of my windows wide open today--the air was so fresh and wonderful--I've got a NEW BUG visiting by my nightstand: I KNOW this is a skipper butterfly, but which one??

My guess is that it's a Sachem (Atalopedes campestris), which is pretty common around here--especially in North Carolina, the second state down, but there's been a lot of WIND the past couple of days, and maybe this guy (it looks to be a male, but I'm not sure) caught a good updraft and wound up in my back yard.

Here's an authenticated Sachem from this wonderful website, Jeff's North Carolina Butterfly Page.

And here's my visitor: I'm calling him Fred (after the names for peace on the front of our hotel in Ravello). Fred is Norwegian for "peace."




So, woddya think? Is it a Sachem? Skippers are some of my very favorite butterflies. They're very fast and can be quite colorful. And I love their eyes and antennae.