Headed toward normal

I actually saw my first two butterfly species for the year today. One was at a banding site about ten miles south of CMO, near Terlingua, and the other was at CMO. Reakirt's Blue (Terlingua) and Sleepy Orange (CMO), about the most common species. It's a start.

At that Terlingua banding site we waited patiently for this Anna's Hummingbird to enter the trap. It had been banded several weeks before we think, which may be why it never did go in.

Meanwhile, as we waited, a Pyrrhuloxia landed on my head. 

Photo by Kelly Bryan

Photo by Bonnie Wunderlich

I know I look dorky with my head all wrapped up, but by keeping my ears and throat warm I never get sore throats, earaches, or even colds or flu, so it's worth it. Plus it keeps me warm.

In keeping with the strangeness so far this year, my feeders have been bedeviled by bees. Here's one from under the roof where rainwater can't overflow the baffles. Either rain came in sideways or wind blew the feeder excessively. 

So I changed it out with a fresh one, and half an hour later it looked like this. All I can imagine is that when I rehung the fresh one some solution must have gotten sloshed during the process of flipping it over. That does happen occasionally. I'm going to leave it and see if by tomorrow the bees have gotten all they're able to reach. Whew!