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The Morning Porch

Daily short takes from an Appalachian hollow

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little wood satyr

July 13, 2025 by Dave Bonta

Another warm and humid morning. A brown butterfly lands on my book and closes its wings to show a row of eyespots: Little Wood Satyr. In the deep shade next to the springhouse, a twig snaps under a paw or hoof.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags little wood satyr, springhouse
May 29, 2016 by Dave Bonta

Exotic dancers of the Lepidoptera have names like Little Wood Satyr and Pearl Crescent. Their underwings bear black suns and crescent moons.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags little wood satyr, pearl crescent
May 24, 2015 by Dave Bonta

The white porch railing is a landing-strip for butterflies: red-spotted purple, little wood satyr. A fat contrail lingers above the ridge.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags contrails, little wood satyr, red-spotted purple 2 Comments
May 31, 2013 by Dave Bonta

Two wood satyr butterflies careen through the yard, the dark pages of their wings marked with yellow Os. A blue dragonfly circles the house.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags dragonflies, little wood satyr 2 Comments
July 16, 2010 by Dave Bonta

A little wood satyr—brown butterfly with yellow-rimmed eyespots—lands on the glass door and pivots at the center of its reflection.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags little wood satyr 2 Comments
July 8, 2008 by Dave Bonta

The little wood satyr I first spotted yesterday flutters up from the side garden, yellow-rimmed eyespots like dim headlights in the fog.

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Categories Plummer's Hollow Tags fog, garden, little wood satyr

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On This Day

  • April 4, 2025
    A damp and gloomy sunrise. Juncos twitter in the tops of black birches. A cowbird’s liquid note.
  • April 4, 2024
    Thick fog brightening in the east. Over the roar of the creek, a phoebe’s small, inexhaustible engine.
  • April 4, 2022
    Bare branches mellowing the sun’s blaze. Two crows fly into the woods and one flies out. There are eight million stories in the naked forest.
  • April 4, 2021
    Just enough upper-atmosphere haze to soften the sun from glare to glow. Today the hepaticas will open—I’m sure of it.
  • April 4, 2020
    Overcast and still. The gobbling of a wild turkey up in the field echoes off the ridge—a startling thing to hear once, let alone twice.

See all...

Related book

Cover of Ice Mountain with a linocut of a big ridgetop tree.

What I do after I sit on the porch. One winter and spring's daily walks distilled into short poems with linocut illustrations by Beth Adams.

Header image: detail from Paper Garden by Clive Hicks-Jenkins (used by permission)

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