Making Exceptions

I would not tolerate living with person who occasionally and inexplicably piddled or defecated on the carpet and rugs inside my house.

But I tolerate that from my 20 pounds of housecat?

—Mitchell Hegman

The Mule Deer Zone

I have a zone of elevation around my yard I call the mule deer zone.   The zone starts at ground level and extends to five feet above the ground.  The zone indicates the range of reach for browsing mule deer.  The branches of trees and bushes within the zone are regularly stripped free of leaves by foraging deer.

As I have mentioned in previous blogs, I decided when I first moved to the country not to constantly push against the natural landscape and not to fight the indigenous animals.

Some of the trees and bushes wear the look of living in the zone fairly well, others appear somewhat spindly.  But they survive.

The deer survive.

I survive.

Mayday Tree

Chokecherry Bush

—Mitchell Hegman

A Beat-Up Swallowtail Butterfly

It’s a rough and tumble world for butterflies.  They might look pretty, but butterflies are both tough and sometimes abused.  On a recent walk into the mountains, I spotted a swallowtail butterfly fluttering around a lush and narrow swale near a small creek.

The area was already swarming with dozens of dragonflies and a horde of orangish butterflies I think are variegated fritillary butterflies.  When the swallowtail attempted to land on the head of a musk thistle for a snack, three of the orange butterflies immediately mobbed it.

The swallow tail circled about and tried again.

Same result.

On the third attempt, the swallowtail landed successfully on the thistle flower and remained there long enough for me to capture several images.  Only in looking at the images later did I notice the damage on the right wing of the swallowtail. 

Obviously, the butterfly has been in a few skirmishes of some sort.   

I have posted a photograph of the swallowtail along with a fritillary (found online) and two other images I captured on my hike.

Swallowtail Butterfly

Variegated Fritillary (Photo: Megan McCarthy)

Tall Tamaracks

Arctic Aster

—Mitchell Hegman

Western Tiger Salamander

A smallish motion in the middle of my country road near the cattail pond and mailboxes caught my attention.

Strange motion.

At first, I thought I was seeing a fish flopping.   Then I thought wounded bird.  I drew to a halt near the mystery critter and exited my car to investigate.

To my amazement, I discovered a western tiger salamander slowly inching across the road in its wracking back and forth walking style.  This is the first tiger salamander I have seen in my life.

After capturing a few images of the salamander, I scooped the reptile into my hand, walked it across the road, and placed it near the cattails where it was headed.  The salamander did not struggle against me at all and felt surprisingly solid and muscular when I picked it up.

Western tiger salamanders range throughout Montana on the eastern side of the Continental Divide.  According to the Montana Field Guide: Adults are found in virtually any habitat, providing there is a terrestrial substrate suitable for burrowing and a body of water nearby suitable for breeding.

Adult western tiger salamanders tend to remain underground in burrows in prairie or agricultural habitats and only emerge for any length of time to breed in the water available to them.

Western Tiger Salamander

—Mitchell Hegman

Love and Rain

Yesterday, finally, the first rain reached my house.  It has been two hot months without moisture.

The rain fell for several minutes, thrumming down through my rain gutters and ushering forth the scent of the prairie sagebrush, cured grass, and earth.

Rain is life.

As good fortune would have it, the rain fell while I was video chatting with Desiree in the Philippines.

Vital these: love and rain.

After standing on the porch to watch the rain with Desiree, the thought occurred: “Des,” I announced, “We need to experience our first rain in the sunroom!”

“Yes,” she answered.

Off to the sunroom I pranced with my smarter-than-me-phone held before me.  Together, by means ten-thousand various modern inventions, we shared the first rainwater streaming down the glass of my new sunroom.

The rain did not last long, but it was worthy of celebration.

First Rain on the Sunroom Glass

—Mitchell Hegman

Smoke and Ash

I wipe down the top of my hot tub cover on a fairly regular basis and then apply a protectant to shield the cover from sun and weather damage.  Over the last couple of weeks, the constant smoke from surrounding wildfires deposited a notable grime on the cover.  More recently, flecks of ash have drifted down from aloft.

Yesterday, I wiped down the cover.

The results made me hope I have not been breathing in a lot what has been sifting through our skies recently.  I have posted a photograph of the first in series of wet paper towels I used to wipe down the cover.

—Mitchell Hegman

Scary, Not Scary

Scary: A poltergeist throwing chairs and breaking glasses in your kitchen.

Not Scary: A poltergeist reorganizing clothes in your closet.

Scary: Running out of toilet paper.

Not Scary: Running out of note paper.

Scary: Spiders with wings.

Not Scary: Butterflies that glow in the dark.

—Mitchell Hegman