Bed and Breakfasteur Chris Vincent hosted me at his B&B in Catalina, AZ last night. He has a beautiful facility with an incredible view of the Catalina Mountains. He has done a lot of work to create some great gardens.
Hoped to do some lepping this morning as I pulled in too late yesterday afternoon for that. But, as has kind of been my mantra this year, I was under the weather, literally. Awoke to find the area socked in by heavy gray clouds. Looked like they would move out, but then they would back up against the mountains, trapped against the west flank of the Catalinas. Finally, around 9:45AM or so got about 10 minutes of sun and things started to come out. Picked up two new species, Gulf Fritillary and Mexican Yellow, and then the clouds moved back in again.
Chris Vincent has 82 species of butterfly on his checklist for the property. Another butterfly nerd, John Saba, was telling me Sunday how he thought September and October were the best months of the year for lepping in AZ. So, I was in a good place, at the right time, and we saw eight species total. I have been snookered so many times by the weather this year. I told Chris, if there was a single image that could be the poster child of my big butterfly year, it would be this mornings cloud covered view of the Catalinas! But, I'm going to enjoy the few bugs I did see rather than mope over the ones I didn't see!
Chris' B&B is a really neat place. Something like 20 hummingbird feeders as well as some seed and suet feeders as well. If you are a nature nerd and would like a chance to be pampered for a weekend you should check it out.
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| Mexican Yellow |
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| Gulf Fritillary |
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| Pipevine Swallowtail cat |
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B&B hummers
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B&B gardens
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