The spring is advancing three or four days for every day, after its slow start. Now the butterflies! 

I first wrote that I couldn’t identify this pretty one. “It looks like a copper” I wrote, “but I found no listing that described it. I’d describe it as looking like a couple flakes of ponderosa pine bark.” Well, it’s a brown elfin, or Callophrys augustinus.  It makes one flight. I’m sure it was a good one, in all that sun.

I wrote this to: “So, until I find a better name, I’m going to call it a ponderosa copper, and think of it as a tree that has taken wing.” Well, a guy has gotta have some fun. Still, these lovelies are far more common in the East than out here in the West, and far more common in woodlands than anywhere else, but they do like chaparral. Sagebrush country will do!

As you can see, it loves wildflowers. What a beautiful find.