Tularosa Road

Above: This might be my favorite photo of the Tularosa bunch. Click it to see it full size, personally, I think it's worth a look.

Not everything on Tularosa Road was scary today (see previous entry). Some of it was quite lovely. I got another shot at the Common Mestra butterfly which made me very happy because I was thoroughly dissatisfied with my shots of it a few weeks ago.





Above : This is where I stopped to rest. It looks like Hagrid's cave collapsed behind that tree or something. Below: I like to burn incense outside. I light it at cemeteries (when visiting my late peeps) or whenever I'm feeling especially witchy. I also like to think it keeps the skeeters off me when I'm having an impromptu picnic.

Above: Cactus is some tenacious stuff, ain't it?

Above and below: The aforementioned Mestra.

Above: I had no idea the Snout was such an ambitious butterfly. Everywhere I looked on Tularosa Road today the Snouts were covering these, um, round whatever-they-ares that grow on some trees here. They're hard like a rock. No idea what kind of trees they grow on or just what exactly the Snouts were attempting to do with these things. But they were fighting for space on them.

Update! My friend Darbee says, "The little round rock like balls growing on trees are called "oak galls." They are home to a little larva insect and they grow in the gall and then turn into a real bug, or something like that. We had them in the Park and people came in all the time asking what kind of nut that was. Not sure what kind of insect that it is growing in them though." So I looked it up and it's apparently gall wasps (aka gallflies) that grow inside them. That's what causes the large tan ball as well as all the little tiny red balls above! I'm so glad I didn't taste one!