I found a lovely little butterfly in the garden a few days ago. I was walking by with the feed bucket (accompanied by ducks, guinea fowl and chooks all screaming at the top of their lungs) when I saw a flash of bright blue in a buddleia bush (also called butterfly bush). It was so bright for a second, then it disappeared. I went searching for what had made that flash (of course) and found a tiny little butterfly sitting with his wings up, looking all innocent and ‘who me? -ish’ 

I went back to the humpy for my phone so I could take a photo (much to the dismay and general disbelief of the assembled avian hordes) and snapped a few shots of this pretty little boy in the buddleia. After the feeding was done I did a quick internet search and found the Butterfly House website.

I was eventually able to identify the little fellow by using my patented method of ‘click all links until something looks familiar’ (or I am completely distracted by several new and interesting things).

My little visitor is a Small green banded blue butterfly (because lepidopterists are such imaginative people, obviously prone to flights of fancy). Apparently my little friend is a male because only the males have the bright, metallic blue on the top of the wings, the females have the same pattern as the underside on the top of the wings. The blue flash that attracted my attention no doubt attracts females of the butterfly persuasion too (and probably predators). I couldn’t get a photo of the little fellow with his wings open as he suddenly went shy and refused to fly away, even when I poked him with a finger. As soon as I had turned off the camera app on the phone, of course, he flitted away among the trees.

The Small green banded blue butterfly is not endangered, or even rare, but it is the first time I have seen these little beauties in the garden. Maybe it is just the first time I have noticed them. Apparently their favorite host plant is Red ash, a tree which I have not seen growing nearby, but maybe I haven’t looked hard enough.

I love finding new things to make my mind work, and this little fellow certainly did that. There is something about butterflies flitting about in the garden that makes the day more beautiful don’t you think?