Observation date: June 03, 2023
Submitted by: sandyleapt
Specimen type: Photograph
Observation notes: New butterfly for me. This is the only one I saw. Buildings and gardens around the National Wildlife Refuge Headquarters created by the CCC in the 1930s are a lovely oasis, the only trees and ornamental, non native shrubs around for miles. The refuge headquarters and irrigated gardens abut a pond, marshes and upland sagebrush salt desert scrub. This area received more precipitation that usual this year. Butterflies were found in the gardens around the visitor center nectaring on a chestnut tree of some sort, French Lilac and spirea flowering in the garden and on oranges that had been sliced in half and hung for migrating birds. Elevation approximately 4100 feet.
Status: Resident
Verified by: Ken Davenport
Verified date: June 25, 2023
Coordinator notes: This does not look like a Lustrous Copper to me. Your habitat description fit for Purplish Coppers. Lustrous Coppers are a boreal species.-Ken Davenport
