#335: More Fluttery Friends

And a scaly friend too

There are soooo many Sandia hairstreaks in the foothills this year. I don’t think I’ve ever seen so many at once, not to mention so many communing together in one way or another.¹

Sandia hairstreaks busily creating a new generation

I don’t get to see Sandia hairstreaks on flowers as often as I’d like but this year is different in that respect as well. Spectacle pod bloomed extra early and the butterflies obviously love it.

Three — count ‘em! — three Sandia hairstreaks on a single flower cluster

In addition to all her other impressive skills, it appears Mother Nature is a fine lighting director as well.² I love the way the light is falling directly on the right-hand butterfly’s head below.

More new butterflies in the works

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But that’s not all …

Early butterflies, early spectacle pod … and the very earliest I have ever run into a rattlesnake in the Sandia foothills.³

Western diamondback rattlesnake

See that slit of a pupil in its eye above? I believe that’s one of the ways you can tell you’re dealing with a venomous snake. Most snakes have round pupils.

Diamondback rattles … and unusual stripes at the end of its tail

I couldn’t see most of the snake at first, only its head. I waited and waited.⁴ Finally it moved, but I still never saw all of it at once. It was safely wrapped around some prickly pear and rocks, which is perhaps why it never felt threatened enough to rattle or coil.

Most diamondbacks have solid black and white stripes, of roughly equal thickness, right in front of their rattles. This snake’s pattern is dramatically different than most.

1. I neglected to mention a couple of weeks ago that Sandia hairstreaks are New Mexico’s state butterfly.

2. Not that I, of all people, have ever doubted Mother Nature’s lighting gifts.

3. I can often get through April without seeing a rattlesnake. I have never seen one in March before.

4. I would like to say photography has taught me patience but that’s not quite accurate. It’s taught me that good things come to those who wait, however impatiently.