Have you noticed this butterfly before with its erratic, rapid flight?
It’s a Red Admiral (Vanessa atalanta) and it’s perfectly camouflaged this time of year.
Habitat: moist woods, yards, parks, marshes, seeps, and moist fields. The Red Admiral’s range is as far as Guatemala, north through Mexico and the United States to northern Canada. They’re even found in Hawaii, some Caribbean Islands, New Zealand, Europe, Northern Africa and Asia. Adults will hibernate, but may not survive the coldest winters, so most of North America must be recolonized each spring by southern migrants.
Diet: The typical diet of the adult Red Admiral consists of fermenting fruit, tree sap and bird droppings. If these aren’t available they’ll settle for flower nectar such as daisy, aster, goldenrod, red clover, and milkweed, which are abundantly available on many LP&CT properties, such as Hawk Valley Farm or West Meadow. In the caterpillar stage, they eat plants from the nettle family and live within a shelter of folded leaves when young or a nest of leaves and silk when older.
