Observation date: June 14, 2026
Submitted by: BlueKirby
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: I'm more of a night-dweller and sleep through the day, but every so often I stay up all night to go birding early. This was one of those days. I went to the Pine Hill Rd Grasslands section of the Bolton Flats WMA, one of the few places in the entire state of Massachusetts where the Grasshopper Sparrow consistently breeds, to see... well, Grasshopper Sparrows (side-note: this specific area is home to quite a variety of cool species of birds that I've not seen in many other places in the state, such as Indigo Buntings, Brown Thrashers, and Prairie Warblers, as well as the "Weirdly Elusive To Me Alone" Eastern Bluebird. Two years ago, this was also where I knocked Eastern Towhees and Common Yellowthroats off my birding life list, as well as the American Kestrel last year)
While walking down the trails, this lil buddy landed near me! I have lots of experience with lady butterflies (Vanessa sp.), but was only aware of the Painted Lady for most of my life. My area of focus these days is primarily birds, so I don't have many similar butterfly/moth species memorized. I was so sure that my pics wouldn't show enough to be IDable (since every pic of Painted and American Lady butterflies looked the same to me), but according to several iNatters that was enough (I ID'd at genus level, but people came in and narrowed down to species).
My only regret that day is that I didn't realize that the plant growing in the wake of the recent controlled burn was likely an invasive species, and thus I didn't report it :,)
I did also see a really cool black butterfly with bluish-gray spots on the end of the wing, but I was completely unable to get any pics.
Status: Resident
Verified by: jwileyrains
Verified date: July 06, 2026
Coordinator notes: Note the small white spot in the orange field below the black apical patch - it's an easy way to differentiate V. virginiensis from V. cardui.
