Painted Lady Butterflies

Millions of butterflies are flitting about on their way north. I had mistaken them for monarch butterflies until a Californian friend told me that they were Painted Lady butterflies. She would know. The desert never stops to amaze me. The scorpions and rattlers are still hibernating so I have not seen any, for which I'm very grateful. But I have noticed a few lizards darting
away from Queenie, quick as lightning. She doesn't have a hope in hell ever catching one...From the beginning of February, there had been a continued and varied population of migratory critters. The ring-billed seagulls have dwindled to about a tenth of their previous number during the winter months. The yellow-head blackbirds and cohorts, the red-wing blackbirds, have deserted the feeders. Only an occasional hummingbird checks out the red sticker on my coach window.For all the desert's seeming immutability, there is constant change nonetheless. It fascinates me. It is said that there no half-measures when it comes to the desert--one either LOVES it or HATES it. From the very first moment I laid eyes on it in my earlier travels, it amazed me and I virtually fell in love with its ever changing hues and moods. And at night, the stars shine the brightest I have ever seen.



--Posted By Stargazer to Boondocking Blogger at 3/28/2009 02:00:00 PM