Red Admiral butterflies (Vanessa atalanta) are out in force this year, enough to be noticed by my radio station, WNYC. This is probably an East Coast phenomenon, as I was on Nantucket this weekend and saw many but photographed few. Being so fast, flighty, and flittery, butterflies are generally hard to photograph. Red Admirals are especially erratic and fast in flight, and when perched they see you coming way before you see them. I managed these shots because this particular one kept returning to the window and the surrounding shingles so I could just stand there and wait.
I suspect therefore that it is one of the males, which the Kaufman Field Guide says are “especially pugnacious” in defending their territory; this one actually chased after a bumblebee! I suppose that he was trying to chase away me, too, so I left him to the sun. According to the Kaufman, this species sometimes migrate north in large numbers.
When these perch with their wings closed, they are much harder to notice, especially on a woodland path:
Vanessa atalanta is an especially beautiful scientific name: Vanessa is from the Greek for butterfly; the Vanessa genus also includes the Painted and American Ladies; Atalanta was the mythological Greek hottie who was swift of foot but had an eye for the golden apples. Wikipedia tells me that V. atalanta is mentioned in Pale Fire, which I just started to re-read this weekend, coincidentally.
Backyard and Beyond 
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