A little Black Bears wanders down from the hills and has their eyes set on the abundant bushes of quickly ripening choke cherries.
Happy Friday and have a wonderful weekend.
Tag: Montana
Dressed in White
The coneflowers are one of the later bloomers in our area and provide a snack for some of the other late season visitors. In this case it’s a cabbage white butterfly getting a sip of nectar on late summer afternoon.
Old Green Eyes
A peculiar looking green-eyed bee/wasp enjoys a bit of time on the coneflowers.
Western Moss-heather: Cassiope mertensiana
Western Moss-heather is a beautiful plant that grows high up in the alpine environment in northwestern United States, Alaska and Canada. We happened across a nice patch flowering a few weeks ago.
Beautiful little bells hanging from redish stems with the plants growing about 4-5 inches tall at most.
Some patches almost seems to be growing directly out of the rocks along this wind whipped slope.
A flower we don’t encounter every summer on our hikes but one we will always remember.
One last alpine garden
A few weeks ago we we lucky enough to take a hike along a ridge above tree-line once again filled with alpine wildflower. Most growing only inches tall yet the display of color was stunning.
Carefully stepping from rock to rock to avoid smashing these fragile flowers that somehow thrive in a cold and windy environment.
Where sunflowers and lupine grown only inches tall.
While other flower grew as if they were the earth itself.
Happy Friday and wishing you a wonderful weekend.
Dog days of summer
Sometimes a landscape can provide relief for the hot and quiet dog days of summer. Especially if cool mountain air is included.
Just a handful
A Milbert’s Tortoiseshell Butterfly sips sweet nectar on an August afternoon. While many of the butterflies we see are present in great numbers through the summer there are some we only see a handful of and then only for a few weeks at the most. The Milbert’s is one of them.
Another not so frequent observation is the Red Admiral.
The Pink-Edged Sulphur is always one of the most skittish and elusive of butterflies for us to photograph each summer. They seem to have that sixth sense and fly away even before we can get within range.
Another butterfly we only see a handful of each summer is not a butterfly at all but a moth. The Police-car Moth to be exact.
What?
A Pine Siskin give a look that just screams What? while devouring some thistle.
Lorquin’s Admiral
Although we see a couple every summer the Lorquin’s Admiral not as abundant as many of the other butterflies we see. This individual was resting, wings spend, on a wonderful lichen covered tree. The red wings spots and bright red eye make this a unique sight and one we never tire of.
Blurple
Rocky Mountain Penstemon.
Are they Blue?
Are they Purple?
Oh Heck, let’s just call them Blurple. Seeing them growing wild in the fields or in the garden around they house always bring a smile to our faces.
We are not sure there can be a more saturated color and the sculptural beauty just leaves one shaking their head.
Blowing on the breeze as summer lingers on.
And the bees dig them as well.
Happy Monday and have a great week ahead.
nature has no boss 
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