Sighting for May 15, 2022

Bright sun and a light breeze with temperatures from 49° at 12pm to 52° when I finished at 1:30pm. After my session yesterday where I came away without positive identification of several whites and a blue butterfly, I returned today hoping for better success. I brought a longer lens and set the camera at a much faster shutter speed figuring I’d need to try for photos of uncooperative butterflies in flight. Sightings were scarce for the first forty-five minutes and then as temperatures warmed I saw more activity. While distant and not well-focused, my photos confirmed successfully that the whites were Large Marbles (Back’s Marble is the local subspecies). The blue I found today was a male Greenish Blue (Kodiak Blue is our local subspecies), and its low-flying behavior over open terrain was consistent with my sighting yesterday too. It seems very early for Greenish Blues, as I typically find them in June.