Amy L. Wink, Ph.D.

amywink November 25th, 2009

The rain has brought hordes of butterflies to the pastures and my own backyard in Austin. Walking through the fields, swarms of small butterflies rise from the grasses, looking like tiny fall leaves on the wind. This is good for Will because the one thing he shies at most has been the stray butterfly coming at him from the woods. I understand how the bright-winged erratic movement of the butterfly catching the sun could look like danger out of the darkness. Since he’s been out with them, however, he’s decided they are nothing to be wary of, these little bright leaves floating up from the grasses.

In Austin, the blooming loquat tree in our backyard has provided a feast for numerous butterflies. While we have considered removing the tree, we now plan to keep it for the butterflies. After some research, I found that our current plague consists of Queen Butterflies (Danaus Gilipus) of the Milkweed Butterflies family (Danaidae) and the Red Admiral (Vanessa Atalanta) of the Brushfoot (Nymphalidae) family, and all manner of smaller Skipper butterflies–which also seem the likely suspects for Will’s pastures. This wonderful Butterflies of North America website helped me identify the Queens and Admirals in our backyard which appear to be happy sharing the Thanksgiving feast together.

• nature , photography
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amywink November 23rd, 2009

. . . but no signs of albatross. Thank heavens!

We had another rain event this week and Lisa’s place had over two inches in 24 hours. I think this makes a total of rain since October somewhere in the range of 14 inches. It has made a wonderful difference from when we first arrived in mid August, mid-extreme drought. Here are a few photos of the large stock pond for comparison.

Mid August, the pond looked like this:

Mid-October, the pond looked like this:

This Saturday, November 21, the pond looked like this:

The pond is covered with some kind of water plant, floating tiny lobed leaves, like tiny shamrocks:

And the down in the back pastures, past the pond, the long-dry streams are running:

We did not drive this weekend. Saturday’s promised sunshine never appeared and the two inches of overnight rain left standing water everywhere. Sunday, the sun didn’t come out until mid morning and the mud was too thick to try for a drive. Will’s feet look liked he was wearing boots:

And so for Thanksgiving, we are all grateful for rain and water, water, everywhere, and the end of a long, long drought.

• nature , Morgan horses
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