Thank you, Rina - I'm glad you started Butterfly Week up for us 😊

That would be cool 😎 Funny how the royals are all related 👑🤭

We used to call those fish belly legs 🤭

A deep orange butterfly with wings outlined in black and adorned with white spots. It is feeding on what looks to be a thistle blossom.

This is a Queen Butterfly (Danaus gilippus) seen while visiting Sedona AZ years back.
#ButterflyWeek #Butterflies #Inverts 🦋📷🌿

A view of Smith Rock State Park from the perimeter trail with the Three Sisters of the Cascade Range in the background.

Smith Rock State Park forms a peninsula of volcanic rock spires called tuff, enclosed by a hairpin bend of the Crooked River. The tuff erupted 29.5 million years ago in the largest volcanic eruption to occur entirely within Oregon.
#AlphabetChallenge #WeekOForOld
#RockinTuesday #PNW
📷🪨🥾⛰️

A young blue tailed skink poking out of a crevice of a railroad tie. The skink is gray with white stripes, its blue tail is hidden. It is resting partially on a piece of a brick with a piece of twisted wire just below it.

One of the locals
Blue tailed skink
🦎

That bird is a looker! Nice one 👍

😊🙏

Panoramic view of Mount Rainier from the Mount Fremont Lookout Trail on the Sunrise side of Mount Rainier National Park on a blue sky day.

View large for a panoramic view from the Fremont Lookout Trail on the Sunrise side of Mount Rainier NP. Taken September’21.
#MountainMonday #BlueSkyMonday
#Photography
📷🥾🗻

Missing the milk delivery as we had a milk cow

Which was all the further I needed to read 😝

Visited the Orchid Fair yesterday. Here's one of the images I took - Paphiopedilum villosum fma. amnamense 'Eric's Pride'
#orchid #Orchidaceae #PaphOrchid #Paphiopedilum #flower #flowerpower #YEGOrchidFair #NikonZ6iii #EastCoastKin

Four large red tulip blossoms in the garden, with black throats outlined in yellow. Green leaves and stems complete the picture.

Tulips for #StunDay

#flowers #bloomscrolling #garden #photography
📷🌿🌷

Thank you 😊

Lena Lake hike with Madeline. A rocky outcrop overlooking a beautiful lake on the Olympic Peninsula. Madeline is a standard apricot poodle.

A close-up of the Hoary Comma Butterfly, orange and brown with ragged wing edges.

Lunch break on the Lena Lake Hike.
#DogsOfBluesky
📷🥾🐩

Likely a Hoary Comma butterfly that flitted around our sunny lunch stop, landing on people and poodle 🐩 Photo credit to my nephew.

To paraphrase Alanis Morissette —

And what it all comes down to
Is that everything's gonna be fine, fine, fine
'Cause I've got a butterfly on my pocket
And the other hand is Givin' a high five 🖐️
#ImageAndVerse
📷🦋🌿🥾

Thank you 😊

Beautiful 😊 I know they fade to purple, but my Washington wildflowers Guide also says occasionally some are pink from the get go.

Thanks Marina 😊

Yes, and eyeing its chances at the blackbirds still bold enough to be at the top of the plum tree.

Thank you 😊

The glossy blue of a tree swallow’s head with white chin and breast peeking out of a tree cavity. The edge of the tree glows green with moss and the background is a blur of blue sky and forest behind.

#BirdOfTheDay #Woodlands
#SmallbBirdSaturday

A Tree Swallow peeking out from a tree cavity.

Ridgefield NWR
#Birds
📷🪶🪾

I wouldn’t place a large bet on my ID, but I’ve had both in the yard posing in the same spot. This one looked small, which suggests Sharp-shinned rather than Cooper’s. There’s quite a size and a weight differential between the two species. I would happily take correction from someone with expertise.

Thank you, Julie 😊

Thank you, Luis 😊

Wow, that sounds so cool 😎

Thank you, Alan 😊 Their eyes are so beautiful

Thank you 😊 a truly accommodating bird who waited for me to change cameras and settings, and take multiple shots

A juvenile sharp-shinned hawk on a metal structure that holds my birdfeeders. You can tell it’s a youngster by the brown color and streaking on the breast. Beautiful, intense, golden eyes. Smaller than a Cooper’s.

The Sharp-shinned Hawk nests in mixed forests and forages mainly along forest edges, hedgerows, suburban yards. This is a youngster from its coloring. Usually chooses an inconspicuous perch, but this one was above my birdfeeders this morning.

#BirdofTheDay #Woodland #juvenile #birds #photography
📷🪶

Trillium – it has to mean three doesn’t it? Three leaves, three sepals, three petals.

And here is a trillium blossom in full bloom with a dusting of pollen.