Another member of the skipper family of butterflies, this is the aptly-named Least Skipper. The scale is a bit lost in these photos, but the Least Skipper is the size of a dime – perhaps a nickel at most. Very small, at any rate, with a tendency to quickly flit about in wandering patterns.
There were two individuals present, moving between small plants and stones in a shallow ditch just off the trail. We had rain the night before, and again that morning, so the ground was wet with runoff. It’s possible that the skippers were seeking minerals from the wet rocks – I have seen that behavior before with other species.
They posed a fun challenge, trying to capture them during their infrequent moments of stillness, creatures not much bigger than the focus point of my camera, yet utterly charming.