Meadow Frit and others

I finally managed to get out of the house and check out some butterflies this weekend.  Location?  All of these came from Lucas County and Appanoose County, both in southern Iowa.

I was most pleased to finally find a MEADOW FRITILLARY at Colyn SWA in Lucas County.  Turns out, I probably ended the day with 5-7.  Here is one:

It wasn't very surprising that FIERY SKIPPERS were common throughout the day:

Now that I'm actually looking more carefully at the pictures (as I make this blog)... I wonder if this skipper might actually be a Sachem?  I don't have much experience with Sachems unfortunately.  Any thoughts?

I almost wanted to make the following butterflies into European Skippers (a bfly I have yet to see) but logic got the best of me and I accepted the fact that they were just the common LEAST SKIPPERS.  Apparently European Skippers don't fly this late in the season here.   

I absolutely loved the evening light while photographing various sulphurs & yellows at Sedan Bottoms.  I was amazed at how the yellow in these guys just seemed to pop out with the right light.  Here is a LITTLE YELLOW: 

Is the LITTLE YELLOW actually little?  Well, stick one of the giant sulphurs in front of it!

Overall, it was a fairly productive day for butterflies even though my target was actually finding birds.  Although I didn't keep track of what I saw, I'll put down the species I had and in order from most abundant to rarest (for the day):

Common Buckeye
Clouded/Orange Sulphur
Black Swallowtail
Eastern Tailed-Blue
Monarch
Pearl Crescent
Little Yellow
Fiery Skipper
Meadow Fritillary
Least Skipper
Viceroy
Eastern Tiger-Swallowtail
Painted Lady
Red Admiral

Cabbage White

Question Mark
Red-spotted Purple
Gray Hairstreak
Sachem?