Be still my beating heart! I spotted a Milbert’s tortoiseshell near Sandia Crest a few days ago, and it promptly flew off. Fortunately, less than an hour later, another showed up in an entirely different area — and the second one hung around while I took photo after photo.
I saw and wrote about yet another Milbert’s tortoiseshell almost exactly a year ago. I prefer the angle and lighting of this year’s photo because it shows the butterfly’s beautiful blue spots much more clearly. But beggars can’t be choosers, they say — I run into Milbert’s tortoiseshells so infrequently that I’m grateful for any shot I can get.
It was browsing on some yellow wildflowers. I remember noticing them last year and wondering if they were some kind of bladderpod. This year I decided to find out what they were, for real. They’re called Heller’s Draba (Draba helleriana) and aren’t bladderpods after all. However, both bladderpod and draba are part of the mustard family — so I wasn’t too far off.
One of the first rock gardens I saw in the Sandias this year also featured Heller’s Draba (below). I have an ongoing fascination with wildflowers that grow out of rocks, and am especially enamored of lichen-and-flower dual appearances.
I was driving along the east side of the Sandias last week when I remembered I needed to text someone. I pulled over into a parking lot by the side of the road and … voilà! There were about six old cars parked right in a row. They weren’t visible from the road so I felt incredibly lucky that I’d happened to pull over right there, right then.
Who can resist old cars? or wildflowers? or butterflies? Certainly not I!
Big thumbs up on the butterfly, have never seen one. We haven’t made it to the east mountains this summer yet, soon coming.
And there's a rainbow complimenting the hues of the cars!!