After this evening’s community meeting about the Horseshoe Fire, I’ll post another fire update here. It has spread only a little since the last update, and most of the recent burning has been in the interior of the new burn.
On Sunday I journeyed into the high Chiricahuas with Dick and Fran Zweifel and Noel Snyder to see what beautiful bugs might be flying. The iris-filled meadows of Barfoot and Rustler Parks were drawing in Western Tiger Swallowtails, Silver-spotted Skippers, Gray Hairstreaks, and a variety of sulphurs and blues, including this Acmon Blue.
Mylitta Crescents were courting.
East Turkey Creek is still flowing strongly, its margins abloom with Golden Columbine and Fendler’s Monkeyflower. Here a Nais Metalmark (quite rare in the Chiricahuas) was chasing ladybugs away from a patch of Ceanothus shrubs. I was only able to get a poor photo of this beauty, but here it is:
