The West Coast

After Arizona, we headed west into California and up into Oregon and Washington.  Although we didn't have a lot of time to work bugs, I took a lot of pictures of what I could find.

Starting in California, we had some luck with butterflies at the San Elijo Lagoon which is north of San Diego.  It was there that we saw:

Lorquin's Admiral:

Fatal Metalmark:

The MARINE BLUES continued to be abundant:

Gray Hairstreaks apparently occur here as well:

We eventually got up into Oregon for a quick trip through northward.  I pulled my camera out at a rest area along the interstate and came away with pictures of this COMMON RINGLET:

... and this PINE WHITE:

Later on that day, I ventured outside again for bflies and found this pair of SACHEMS:

I think it was the next day that we took a stroll near Eugene, Oregon and stumbled on things like this WESTERN TAILED-BLUE:

From what I can tell, WOODLAND SKIPPERS are perhaps the most abundant grass skipper during this season in Washington:

It's clear that this WESTERN TIGER-SWALLOWTAIL had seen better days:

We spent a brief day at Mount Rainier and saw things like this SILVER-BORDERED FRITILLARY:

There were a LOT of checkerspots/crescents around.  I'm not totally convinced that these four photos are all VARIABLE CHECKERSPOTS but a part of me thinks so.  Thoughts?

There were also some blues around up in the higher elevation including this MELISSA BLUE:

... and this BOISDUVAL'S BLUE:

I'll close with a butterfly in Sacramento that stumped me.  There aren't THAT many skippers possible here this time of year and with this butterfly being so worn, I wonder if it's just a SACHEM?

The next post will be devoted to some of the dragonflies/damselflies from our AZ/CA/OR/WA trip.  Stay tuned...