Sunday, August 23, 2009

Sheridan's Hairstreak

When you think about the wildlife of Yellowstone most people think about all of the big animals that can be found there, like bison, moose, elk, wolf and bear, but it's important to keep your eyes open or else you may miss some of the interesting little things that you can find.
For instance on our trip to Yellowstone we had our fist opportunity to photograph the Sheridan's hairstreak butterfly. These small butterflies are comparable in size to many of the common blue butterflies that we see in my pat of the world. In fact when I first saw one flitter by I believed it was a blue but on closer examination the color was more of a green color. The Sheridan's hairstreak is a butterfly of the western portions of North America. It is usually found at elevations from 6000 to 10,000 feet above sea level, and prefers habitats such as hillsides, canyon slopes and sagebrush. I photograph these on a hillside over looking the Lamar River that was filled with sagebrush.

11 comments:

Jama said...

That is a gorgeous butterfly!

Loran said...

Is there a special time of year that these come out? I completely missed it on our trip to Yellowstone, but admittedly we were looking for the big animals. Nice capture.

Chris said...

Beautiful shots of a wonderful butterfly. Well done!

Unknown said...

A hairstreak butterfly..Never heard it before..And that pic is one of the beautiful pics of butterflies..Beautifully shot

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Helen said...

Beautiful color. Great shots. Helen

Arija said...

Master of the macro, you've done your magic again. Wonderful captures.

sweetbay said...

What a beautiful little butterfly!

EG CameraGirl said...

What a pretty little hairstreak. I didn't know they come in green.

foto CHIP said...

Awesome - so beautiful - the best Monday Macro so far :)

Sarah Sullivan said...

Oh that is beautiful - what an amazing color!!! Great shots!! Sarah

Texas Travelers said...

I did not see this in Yellowstone. It would be a lifer. Thanks for sharing. Great find and great photo.


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