This photo has a special significance for this trip. Of the hairstreaks found in Massachusetts, the Hessel's hairstreak is especially difficult to photograph since it lives in mature Atlantic white cedar trees that grow in bogs. Habitat loss significantly contributes to the scarcity of this butterfly and its habit of staying up in the trees and only descending occasionally makes it a particularly challenging subject. In addition the trees grow in wet areas where access is limited at best.

This year I decided to go to New Jersey where there are Atlantic white cedar groves in boggy areas of the pine barrens. These groves have an attractive nectar plant, sand myrtle, that provides a photographic opportunity when the butterflies visit it. The groves have solid, sandy footing where you can walk around looking for the butterfly. In the past the butterfly has flown in good numbers so I expected photographic opportunities to abound.

I arrived in New Jersey just as the sand myrtle was coming into flower. The weather was perfect and with the help of a local friend, we went in search of hairstreaks. My plan to capture a photo of this elusive butterfly was coming together, or so I thought.

In past years there were already many Hessel's hairstread butterflies by this time of year, but this year we could find none. I searched various locations again for a second day, certain to find butterflies. And I did. I saw one solitary butterfly around mid-day, but it was too far into the bog on blueberries for a picture. Oh, well. We'd try again in the morning.

The next day the weather went bad, heavy fog and rain. Since we were due for birding in Ohio, a day's travel, we decided to accept defeat and moved on. Some plans don't work out.

We had a great week birding Ohio and I stayed in touch with my friend in NJ. He let us know that one or two hairstreaks had been found in the sand myrtle after we'd left. I decided to give it one more try on our way back from Ohio, hoping the flowers had lasted a week of hot weather.

We arrived at the site, after a day's travel, at 5 PM and found another searcher on his way out. He had searched for two hours before we arrived - prime time - and found nothing. Not what I needed to hear. Well I wanted to check out the site after not having seen it for a week so went in. Because we were going to take a look the fellow we met decided to join us for one last look too.

No sooner had we walked in than he'd found a Hessel's, a lifer for him. But even before I got eyes on it, let alone a record shot, it had disappeared. We never ever saw it fly. We couldn't relocate it. Argh. Oh well, my plan had been to search the next day anyway and now we had some additional information. The hairstreak was there and it had been seen late in the day.

The next day we staked out the site. We searched over the course of the day high and low. We found nothing. But I was determined to see it thought to the bitter end. I wanted to leave no cards unplayed, so we stayed, committed to a post-5 PM quitting time.

Some butterflies are creatures of habit. At precisely 5 PM, one lone little dark triangle made its descent from a nearby cedar to the sand myrtle below. From there it moved in a couple quick hops to some preferred plants several feet away. This time I got a picture, but then it did something unexpected.

It disappeared right in front of my eyes. It hopped down into the thick sand myrtle ground cover where it both hid and still accessed nectar from below. The usual disturbances to "kick it up" only drove it deeper. It was hiding and it was very good at it. No wonder it had been so hard to find. It had been either hiding up in the trees, as expected, or when it came down it hid in the undergrowth, not expected. Now I understood why we couldn't relocate it the previous night. It was still there the whole time! Hmm.

So this photo is special not only because it's one of the last hairstreaks found in Massachusetts that I've wanted to photograph. And it is special not only because a Hessel's is so rare a find. But also it's particularly special because it was so unexpectedly difficult to get even this picture and because I got to see a fascinating behavior I hadn't seen before.

Burlington County, NJ, 5/17/15