Small consolation prize

Once again I found myself headed up my mountain, determined to get a lifer Sandia Hairstreak or Ursine Giant-Skipper. I think I might have seen an Ursine zip by me, but no chance for photos. No Sandias or much of anything else either. I did get photos of a Theona Checkerspot, which is new for the oasis, but one I've seen quite a few other places.

I don't plan to carry my Canon up the mountain again, so the photos from today were all from my Lumix. Not as good as the Canon would do, but all I can manage. It's enough of a killer getting me, water, the Lumix, and binoculars up. As I was ascending the ridge of my trail, before crossing it, I snapped this shot of my destination. The trail goes way up along the ridge because there's a steep valley on the other side of it. The summit is across that valley.

The next shots were taken from the summit. Chisos Mountains in background.

Since I'm learning my way around better on the summit, I've determined this area, where I sheltered from the sun on my last ascent, is located on the left peak of the 3 peaks on the previous summit photo (2nd photo on this post). You can see that persimmon tree in between the huge boulders.

A few days ago the recently fledged Canyon Wrens were back in the courtyard for a short time. They perched on the chimney to my grill and had no qualms about disappearing into the chimney if they thought I was getting too close. So cute!

One disappeared into the chimney, one out, and one peaking out.

I'm still documenting that aberrant Lucifer Hummingbird to watch for changes. It looks to me like there are a few more gorget feathers, but I'll check with Kelly Bryan to see what he thinks.