Wildflowers Blooming

Beautiful spring weather today...low 60's with clear blue skies. Main priority for wildlife watching excursion is to add bird species to month list. Recorded 93 species in 2008; starting today have only 81.  Did find 3 'monthers' this morning : Mountain Chickadee, Red-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatch. As happens often, 'things' are found outside of priorities/targets. Found 5 colorful, at times tiny in size, species of wildflower in bloom: Sagebrush Buttercup, Yellow Bell, Spring Draba, Bulbous Woodland-star and Blue-eyed Mary (photos below). It was fortuitous in finding some of them; great overview of 'mastering the art of observation' by Brain Pickings Newsletter. This time I'll claim finding them to a "connected mind" :-) Find something great!

Collinsia parviflora

Lithophragma glabrum

Ranunculus glaberrimus

Draba verna

Fritilliaria pudica 

1st Butterfly of the Year...over Asphalt

A Milbert's Tortoiseshell (Aglais milberti) flew past me, my first butterfly for the year, while I sat in my car at a light on a four-lane highway. What's really ironic, I was going to Blodgett Canyon, a US Forest Service property just west of Hamilton, MT, that is a trailhead into the Selway Bitterroot Wilderness...I found zero butterflies there! Wildlife watching can be like this...never know what might pop into view. Here's a photo of a flashy Milbert's:

Aglais milberti

At Blodgett Canyon did find colorful wildlife in the form of many lichen species, mostly crustose in morphology, on rock:

Unfortunately, I cannot identify them (at present at least); please enjoy for form and color. Spring is arriving, find something colorful.