Mourning Cloaks are consistently the first butterflies to appear in March each year. While they prefer to feed on tree sap, oaks are a favorite, or rotting fruit, they have to make due with sucking nectar from the blossoms of our early blooming plum tree. The Mourning Cloak caterpillars like to feed on a variety of tree leaves including elms and cottonwoods, which we have plenty of. Adults that appear this early in the season have hibernated over the winter.
The photos below are of an arrangement a friend gave us for Epiphany. The flowers offer a bit of color in the dead of winter and the white roses are quite beautiful.
The 48th Albuquerque International Balloon Fiesta started today. Unfortunately, we had heavy rains on Friday, so there was a rare fog covering the valley on Saturday morning. Only a few test balloons got off before they cancelled the launch due to a persistence of fog and low hanging clouds. I went out to the river and came across a group of paddlers waiting for the balloons to launch. There were other groups of paddlers on the river. The clouds cleared by 10:00 am, and the bumble bees were flying around in the cosmos. I decided the bumble bees were a nice stand-in for the balloons.
We got out late last night for a walk under the stars after putting up our third sack of green chiles, making power bars, and doing various other chores that took up all of our daylight hours. A few hundred feet before the bridge that we use to cross the clearwater ditch, I saw what looked like a weed moving ahead of us. I shined my flashlight on it, and, as I suspected, it was Porky, a very large porcupine, waddling along on its way to cross the bridge ahead of us. I pulled out my phone to see if I could get a video, but by the time I got the phone convinced to take a video in the dark, Porky had crossed the bridged and headed down into the cottonwoods between the clearwater ditch and the irrigation ditch. I managed to get a short, 15 second video of Porky waddling into the undergrowth by a large cottonwood. I assembled and arranged a short piece of music for Porky’s promenade.
The photos below are an assortment of critters and fall colors.
Off Center & Not Even 