The Great Spangled Fritillary has been a frequent visitor these last few days to the butterfly bush growing beside the cabin, and they should be joined within days by the migrating Monarchs who’ll be making their annual trek through the North Carolina mountains, a journey that peaks for us in September or early October.
I’ll be the first to admit that I’m no lepidopterist, which should be obvious since I carelessly misclassified the two Great Spangled Fritillary in the photo below.
The Fritillary are year round dwellers in the North Carolina mountains, unlike the migrating Monarchs.
The Monarchs will be coming through in droves later in the month on a journey of as much as 3,000 miles from Canada, Pennsylvania, or New York State, en route to Mexico, Panama, or some other Central- or South-American country.
I took the photos of the Great Spangled Frilliaries around 3 p.m. on Sept. 5, 2026. The image of the Monarch is a screen-grab from Goole images.