I’m still here at my campsite. The weather has been very hot. I’m glad to be where I am at about 1 mile elevation. It is usually about 5-10 degrees cooler here than down on the plains. Still, it hit 95 degrees here on Tuesday. By mid-day, I’m in the shade so that helps a lot. Birding has been slow. I go for walks in the morning before it gets hot. Today, I went back to Hell Canyon to see what I could find. Not much for birds but the butterflies were abundant. I saw lots of Monarchs, Painted Ladies, Northern Crescents, and fritillaries. Fritillaries are sometimes very difficult to ID. Except for a few species that are distinctive, most require a view of the underwing to get a positive ID. A collector has no problem with that, but a photographer sometimes finds it very difficult. This morning I found lots of these fritillaries and got some good underwing shots. All the field marks point to Aphrodite Fritillary.
Yesterday, while on a long hike, I found some very strange tracks on an old dirt road. I’ve seen tracks of most creatures that live around here and these are different. I didn’t have a camera with me yesterday but I went back today. Unfortunately, between the wind and cows, most of the tracks were either gone or badly damaged. Here is the best set I could find. The dirt doesn’t provide the kind of detail I’d like to see but the size and pattern is very interesting.
