An American Lady Butterfly In A Clearing

Today I stopped along the road to check out a clearing in the woods.
There I happened to see this pretty American Lady Butterfly (Vanessa virginiensis)...
...flitting around the yard visiting the Dandelions...

 ... and resting in the warm sun.

   Interestingly, in another part of the clearing, I watched a different American Lady ovipositing on Pussytoes (or some other member of the Asteraceae). She knew exactly what she was looking for as she flew around the yard and zeroed in on these tiny, fuzzy, light-green plants (see her laying eggs in the picture below).  She would alight on the selected plant and lay an egg or two, then move along.  I looked for some of her eggs, but I wasn't successful at finding any.  However, another time I watched a similar event and found some freshly laid butterfly eggs... I went into much more detail about that event when I posted about a Variegated Fritillary laying eggs on violets.

   I sure enjoyed watching this American Lady locate the plants she wanted ...there I was on my knees... in the grass in a sunny clearing... surrounded by tall pines with the noise of traffic off in the background... watching this host plant locating/egg laying drama unfold....and I even had my camera.  What fun!
  Oh yeah, I noticed the other American Lady Butterfly was nectaring on Dandelions.

 Now, more often than not, I see Dandelion flowers and not much visiting them.  But not today... would you look at that!

Just sharing some "Joy in the Journey" from an almost forgotten little spot along the side of the road in the mountains of Pennsylvania..