Two knowledgable correspondents, John Turner and Mike Biasetti, have written to point out that if you look at the left butterfly in Maria Daddino's garden (posted yesterday; but see today's inset) you can see a white spot on the yellow/orange just below the white-spotted black wing tips. The American Lady has this spot not the Painted Lady which is apparently the best way to separate the two when you can see only the upper wings.



Today's overcast weather did not bring in a lot of migrants but there were two flycatchers (Eastern Phoebe and Eastern Wood-pewee) and five warblers (Yellow, Yellow-throated, American Redstart, Black-and-white, and female Yellow-rumps). A couple of loons shooting across the white sky on a southwest-to-northeast track were seemingly Red-throated (smaller and very white underneath). The Yellowlegs in the open water in the middle of the pond posed the usual question: Greater or Lesser. I thought the bill was short and thin but the bird took off with a firm tew-tew-tew-tew -- supposedly more typical of the Greater.

Eric Salzman