{"id":48975,"date":"2017-10-15T05:16:19","date_gmt":"2017-10-15T11:16:19","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/?p=48975"},"modified":"2026-03-20T12:32:08","modified_gmt":"2026-03-20T17:32:08","slug":"common-checkered-skipper-on-flowering-asters","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.onthewingphotography.com\/wings\/2017\/10\/15\/common-checkered-skipper-on-flowering-asters\/","title":{"rendered":"Common Checkered-Skipper On Flowering Asters"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"CommonCommon Checkered-Skipper on aster – Nikon D500, f7.1, 1\/2000, ISO 400, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light<\/span><\/p>\n

I’m seeing far fewer butterflies than I was seeing just two weeks ago but the ones I am seeing now still delight me as they flutter around. Yesterday while hoping to photograph birds near home I spotted a small butterfly nectaring on some wild asters and attempted to photograph it, only one of the 20 or so images I took was sharp enough to present here on my blog and in my galleries because it kept fluttering its wings and there was wind blowing the asters around.<\/p>\n

This is a Common Checkered-Skipper<\/span><\/a> and can be found in most of the U.S., some southern parts of Canada and northern Mexico. I am not sure of the sex of the Common Checkered-Skipper or the species of aster it is nectaring on. Common Checkered-Skippers, also known as Common Checkered Skippers without the hyphen, are spread-winged skippers and are considered to be the most common skipper in North America.<\/p>\n

\"BloomingBlooming Asters in Salt Lake County – Nikon D500, f8, 1\/1600, ISO 400, -1.3 EV, Nikkor 500mm VR with 1.4x TC, natural light
\n<\/span><\/p>\n

There was another clump of asters near a section of the pond that was shadowed while the asters were lit up by the afternoon light and I knew that if I photographed the blooming asters that it would look like they had a black background. I quite like the drama the black background added to this frame. This may be a Western Mountain Aster (Symphyotrichum spathulatum<\/em>) but I am really unsure of that ID.<\/p>\n

Even though I didn’t take any bird images yesterday afternoon I came home with some wildflowers photos and a Common Checkered-Skipper which is still a thing with wings.<\/p>\n

Life is<\/em> good.<\/p>\n

Mia<\/p>\n

Click here<\/a><\/span> to see more of my flower, shrub and tree photos. Click here<\/a><\/span> to see my insect and spider galleries.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

This is a Common Checkered-Skipper and can be found in most of the U.S., some southern parts of Canada and northern Mexico. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":128496,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[6170,709,26,5347],"tags":[6174,6175,970,6098,6041,6042,6173,6172,4620,6044,10698,5070,6176,8018],"class_list":["post-48975","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-common-checkered-skippers","category-salt-lake-county-utah","category-utah","category-wildflowers","tag-aster","tag-asters","tag-autumn","tag-blooming","tag-butterflies","tag-butterfly","tag-common-checkered-skipper-2","tag-common-checkered-skipper","tag-fall","tag-nectaring","tag-park","tag-purple-wildflowers","tag-spread-winged-skippers","tag-urban"],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t\n\t\t