It sounds like the title of a Fairy Tale.

On June 1, 2023, a small group gathered on a sandy beach below a rocky outcrop along the Klickitat River in South Central Washington hoping to catch a glimpse of Washington’s newest resident. Like so many newly arrived Washingtonians, its home territory was in California. Somehow the tiny Gold-hunters Hairstreak has established a colony among the oak trees of Klickitat. The three butterfly watchers, with cameras at the ready, were hoping to see if the colony made it through the winter once again. Sure enough, first one and then other came to the damp sand to join the swallowtails, blues, sulfurs and a Lorquin’s Admiral all getting some liquid nutrients from the damp sand. We watched a total of four Satyrium auretoreum for an hour before moving on to watch Propertius Duskywings and Western Tiger Swallowtails puddling en mass in their separate muddy areas left by the receding high water. Yes, they survived another winter.

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