This butterfly looks so drab until he opens his wings and reveals his hidden beauty. It was there all the time but we couldn’t see it.
I haven’t been able to identify this butterfly that I photographed this past weekend in a meadow in Massachusetts but like the way the shot turned out.
UPDATE: I am now pretty sure this butterfly is a Common Wood Nymph (Cercyonis pegala). Check out the Butterflies and Moths of North America website for additional details.
How much beauty do we miss each day because we fail to see past the ordinary exteriors of things (and people) in our lives and neglect to look more deeply?
© Michael Q. Powell. All rights reserved.
Mike Powell 
I think this is the Common Wood Nymph. They are quite common right now, but I have not seen one with the bright yellow orange on the forewing. My butterfly book says that the orange patch is common in wood nymphs in the eastern population, but is lacking in butterflies found in Maine to the Dakotas. Lucky you!
Thanks again for the research. As you noted in another comment, we reached the same conclusion about the same time. My Wood Nymph was in Massachusetts, so I don’t know if that is part of the area in which the orange is common or not. All I recall about this butterfly was the difficulty I had in getting off a shot. He was very sensitive to any movement, it seemed.
Sorry, you updated your page and named the butterfly as I was typing mine. Sorry for the redundancy.
I’ll all in favor of the department of redundancy department. I would rather you jump in to help me, Sue, than to wait and see if I am drowning. Trust me, I feel like I am in deep water when I try to identify the things I shoot.
Well shot and well said! Thank you for stopping by my blog.
Thanks for your positive words. I enjoy your blog and am following it too. So don’t be surprised when I pop up from time to time.
What a little beauty. As with most things in life, it’s well worth waiting beyond first impressions to see what lies just a little bit deeper under the surface.