Not all invasive species are trouble. When the land is stripped of life and turned into dust, cheatgrass and sagebrush, the swallowtails seek out alfalfa that has escaped from nearby farms. Western […]
Evolution in Action
Why I Love Mud and Muck
Because the mourning cloaks do! It’s a good time to go ruin your shoes. Go on, now. It’s worth it.
Tiny Footprints in the Muck
Look at the insect footprints surrounding this wasp, which is making some of its own, then notice how many there are in all. Some from wasps. Some from others who need mud. […]
Butterfly Season is Here
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 […]
Big Yellow Bear in the Sagebrush
Up the hill we go. Butterflies in the mock orange. How nice! CRASH! CRACK! BANG! A scurry of activity. One second later: Then everyone is calm again. Now it’s time to hunker […]
Butterfly Spook
Claws. Or beauty. The second is how humans see.
Butterflies and Meadowlarks on a Cold Spring Day
Windy day up on the hill. No bees, but many flowers making themselves all pretty for them. That’s a beautiful flower. When you’re from this place, it’s the only one for you, […]
Cool Camouflage
The trick is to put two fake eyes and fake feelers on the top of your wings, while hiding out down below as if you were upside down. Just the fake eyes or the […]
When a Noxious Weed is Our Hope for Salvation
Welcome to the Scotch Thistle. She’s a beautiful thing, don’t you think?The British Columbia Ministry of the Environment has listed it as one of our most noxious (i.e. disgusting) weeds. Aw. Look […]
Green Bees in the Rabbit Brush
Walking along above Kalamalka Lake today, I found the first rabbitbrush of the season in full bloom. Oh, and aren’t the bees happy! Covered in pollen, just like A Midsummer Night’s […]
