Lemony

 

This beautiful lemony butterfly--maybe a sulphur?--was having trouble flying and walking; it kept falling over onto its side and could only flutter, not fly. It had all of its parts and its wings were in pretty good shape, so I'm not sure what might have been wrong. 

We moved it onto a plant in hopes it could drink some nectar. A bit later, it was still walking around so I put on a different plant and left it (after it walked all the way up my arm!) Later still, I couldn't find it, so I hope it managed to fly away to live another day.

Hungry Hungry

 This is a truly beautiful caterpillar, shown here decimating some parsley. It will become a swallowtail butterfly soon...

Monarch on the Way

 

So exciting...you can see the edge of the wing there on the right...

Battered Beauty

 

This monarch lovely has been through it...check out the holes in her wings. They are amazing creatures.

Potato Chip?

 

No, it's a moth! But it does LOOK like a potato chip, no? (Slightly blurry, apologies...)

Lit

This is really large leaf, from a California sycamore (I believe)... it was actually part of our Christmas decor, but now it's time to say goodbye and add it to the compost bin. 
 

More

Remember these lovelies from this summer? 

These are what I dug up (to store over the winter)...just one tuber, planted in the spring, has turned into these clumps of new tubers. Not all of them are viable, but very cool!

The clump above is amazing...

I also discovered some squirrelly items buried in the dahlia bed. I put these here on a stack of bricks that the skwerls use as stairs, and the next day they were all gone, buried somewhere else in the yard, I assume.

No Tailio Lizardo

 

This little dude/dudette dropped its tail, probably to get away from a predator. How amazing is it that they can do that?! 

Birds, Seen

 

A fun hike on Sunday at the San Elijo Lagoon. 

We saw an egret.

A belted kingfisher (I've never seen one before!).

A Great egret.

(Size comparison here between the egrets...and some ducks!)

And not sure what this bird is...a mockingbird (maybe?).

SKWERL, Stucco

 

While it looks upon first glance as if this skwerl is playing the pan pipes...

...in fact, weirdly, it is trying to nibble on a piece of stucco (I think--this photo is on a roof across the alley from our house). When I saw it from a distance, I thought it had a pine cone. 

It did indeed seem to try to nibble, but eventually it dropped it and scampered away. 

Kinda odd...

Hard at Work

 

Wildflower Walk, Part II

 

Hitchhiker

 

(She's hanging on to my car, for some reason...)

Bird Gifts

 

Two feathers in as many days, left in the yard by a hawk and a dove--poetic, somehow...

Desert Views

 

Font's Point overlooks the Borrego Badlands, and the view is spectacular.

We also hiked the William Kenyon Overlook trail, which leads to another panoramic view below.

The chollas look as if they are lit up...

There is nothing quite like the desert...

Hiking the Slot

 

It was so amazing to hike the Slot, a--you guessed it--slot canyon hike in Anza-Borrego. Just beautiful! There was some boulder scrambling (with some assists from below), but it was so so worth it. Truly magical...