Caught in the act!, 9/4/13

This past week I've been clearing out a 20' by 12' patch in my yard for a butterfly garden.  My grass died in the drought a long time ago so there was none to remove, but the Variable-leaf Snail-seed with its long roots and runners was a real pain.  After a few days of work I finally got some plants in the ground and was waiting for my first customer when this big skipper flies up.  She promptly thumbs her nose at me and flies over to a nearby guava and starts ovipositing.

So my new garden's first butterfly was not a Guava Skipper but a lowly Tropical Checkered-Skipper which showed up a couple of minutes later.