It’s not “just another butterfly.” It’s an Anglewing — so dubbed because of the angled and ragged edges of the wings.

I might have passed it by if it hadn’t been for my husband, David. He told me it was fluttering about on the porch. I grabbed my camera and my son and we went out to see if we could spot it.

Nathaniel was the first to see it on the stone wall of the house. I could not make it out; it was so camouflaged!  It was easy to spot after it took off because of the vibrant orange paint of the wings — but also hard to capture with the lens because it was so quick!  I managed to snap 30 pictures of this single Anglewing in the following 10 minutes. I’m posting three to show the varied appearances this one, specific butterfly is capable of. Remember: the three pictures are the same butterfly!

The Anglewing is a woodland butterfly–hardly ever visits flowers. It  feasts, instead, on elms and willows as a caterpillar then tree sap, rotting fruit and other decaying matter as an adult.

One of our books suggests planting currants to attract Anglewings (done!) — since some species enjoy currants as caterpillars.

Anglewings enjoy salts from roadways and are one of the very few species of butterfly that can actually overwinter as adults. And to think, I almost never saw it.