(Almost) Wordless Wednesday

tanjabrittonwriter 58 Comments

Living at an elevation of 6,000 feet along Colorado’s Front Range, we can expect frost until the middle of May. This does not preclude earlier harbingers of spring, some of which have made a welcome appearance in the previous two days.

Wir leben auf 1.800 Meter Höhe am Ostrand der Rocky Mountains in Colorado, wo es noch bis Mitte Mai Frost geben kann. Das schließt nicht aus, daß erste willkommene Frühlingsboten bereits früher in Erscheinung treten, so wie diese hier in den vergangenen zwei Tagen.

Hyacinth in front of our house on 3/11/2025, pondering its next step/Eine Hyazinthe vor unserem Haus am 11.3. 2025 überlegt ihren nächsten Schritt

Mourning Cloak (AE)/Camberwell Beauty (BE) (Nymphalis antiopa) sighted on 3/10/2025, usually the earliest butterfly of the year/Trauermantel vom 10.3.2025, typischerweise der erste Schmetterling des Jahres

58 thoughts on “(Almost) Wordless Wednesday”

  4. Hallo Tanja , die Beobachtung eines Trauermantel ist zumindest bei uns keine Alltäglichkeit und schon gar nicht zu dieser Jahreszeit. Dir ist eine bemerkenswerte Beobchtung gelungen.
    Danke das du sie hier gezeigt hast.
    LG Werner

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  5. I flitted about on the Internet to find that AE stands for American English and BE for British English. CE could stand for common English, though in this case you’ve told us there are two common English names, depending on which side of the Atlantic an English speaker is from. DE could stand for Deutsch, and here’s what Wiktionary says about the German word Schmetterling:

    “Attested ca. 1500, standard since the 18th century. From an East Central German dialect word, equivalent to Schmetten (“cream”) +‎ -ling, due to an old belief that butterflies eat milk products or, in a more ornamented form, that witches transform themselves into butterflies in order to steal such products. Compare English butterfly.”

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    • Sorry you had to do your own search for AE and BE, Steve. I thought the abbreviations were common knowledge.
      What isn’t common knowledge is the etymology of the word Schmetterling–I had no idea. That butterflies eat milk products is imaginable; that witches have to go to the trouble of a transfiguration before they can partake less so.

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      • I had the same reaction. If a witch has the magical ability to transform into a butterfly, surely a witch has the less demanding ability to get dairy products directly. So-called folk wisdom isn’t always wise.

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    • It’s typical here to have warm periods alternate with cold ones during winter, and for the snow to melt a few days after it has fallen. But the year has started too dry and warm and we would happily take some snow from you! You are probably better off!

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  9. Tanja, I amazed that that you were able to locate and photograph some definite signs of spring at an altitude of 6000 ft. A brief warm spell must have stirred up Mother Nature. I wonder when I will be able to spot a butterfly in our neck of the woods.

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    • Thank you for your comment, Peter.
      It’s not unusual to have warm periods alter with cooler ones and where we live, any snow we receive usually melts after a few days. We actually hope for more precipitation in the form of snow or rain as the year is already off to a dry start. We can’t afford to lose any more trees to droughts and fires!

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    • Thank you, Gavin. It’s not unusual for us to have warm periods interspersed with cool ones, and winter will likely make a few more appearances. At least we hope so, as it has been far too dry and most of the state’s river drainages don’t carry enough water. A hot and dry summer on top of a mild and dry winter would not be a good combination!
      Take care,
      Tanja

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  11. The Mourning Cloak is beautiful. I’ve never seen one, although they’re widely reported in Texas. They don’t seem to favor the coast, though; most of the sightings are just a bit north of me. I saw my first swallowtail of the year yesterday — I hope we both see many more in the coming weeks.

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  12. Your caption implies that the Camberwell Beauty is reasonably common in your area. They also occur here but have eluded me for nearly 70 years so, once again, I find myself jealous of your wildlife encounter 🙂

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    • I wish I could beam one to you, Mr. P (we really need to work on that technology; in addition to being very convenient, it would also be a lot more carbon friendly!).

      And yes, they seem “common” here (though there is nothing common about them), especially early on in the year. We saw 3 during a hike this past Monday, the first ones for the year. I felt bad as there were no flowers to be seen anywhere, but I have since learned that they eat mainly sap from trees, so I hope they will find enough sustenance.

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  16. Lovely early signs of spring and a reminder for me to check on my grape hyacinths. We too get frost until mid-May. Maybe waiting longer can help us appreciate the spring, when it does actually set in. 💚🪻

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  18. Fruehlingsboten – wie schoen! Bei uns sind sie noch unterm Schnee versteckt! Aber die ersten Kanada-Gaense habe ich vor ein paar Tage schon gehoert. Sie sind jedes Jahr so was wie Fruehlingsboten!
    VG Christa

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    • Ja, Frühlingsboten machen immer Freude–und Hoffnung. Eigentlich wäre es besser, wenn auch unsere Frühlingsblumen noch von Schnee bedeckt wären, aber leider ist es bereits wieder zu warm und zu trocken für die Jahreszeit.
      Kanadagänse haben wir inzwischen das ganze Jahr über, wenn auch die meisten im Sommer weiter im Norden verweilen (vielleicht bei Dir 😊).
      Ich wünsche Dir und mir und uns allen einen angenehmen Frühling.
      Herzlichst,
      Tanja

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    • The hyacinths are still pondering their next step. I’m always amazed that they seem to be able to stop growing midway and then resume it at some later point.
      And I think the Mourning Cloaks we saw were also early, most of their relatives will arrive later.

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  24. The butters are just now starting to flutter here, but these early emergers are still going to have to whether some definitely low temps that are still putting up a resistance to the coming Spring. I am quite fond of the Cloaks!

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