Observation date: January 06, 2014
Submitted by: Robert Gorman
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: my daughter Joyce and our faithful dog sophie dragged me out for a hike on a very hot day, especially for jan 6th 2014, and they found this wonderful little butterfly. They also found lots more. several gray hairstreaks, west coast ladies, painted ladies and red admirals. Its so dry out we have only had two or three sprinkles so far this fall. amazing to see any butterfly's. night time temp was suppose to be 42 as per the weather channel. also a high they say was 75 and they say its 75 now at 1529 as i write this. felt much warmer. we scared this little gph off the bush repeatedly to try to get a good shot of the inside or top side of wings. joyce used a apple phone on video i will post the topside photos when i figure out how. this looks like a female as it is lacking blue shiny scales between front and hind wings. have read where the males wait for females on hilltops for females. and males is all i notice on hill tops, this first female gph i have noticed on a hilltop garding its perch. very unusual to what i have read and witnessed. the dog and my daughter didn't seem to mind. Hard to believe that to scare this one away we had to shake branch or bump it off the lemmonaid berry bush it was on. it being un phased by our actions would return time after time. this lasted from 1300-1400 hrs then the dog and girl decided it was way past time to go!
Status: Resident
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: January 07, 2014
Coordinator notes: This is subspecies corcorani and a new EARLY date for California
