Tattered Fritillary, Miner

On a viciously hot and humid day, interspersed with rain showers that brought little of the former and almost no relief, save that I didn't need as much sunscreen, I walked the Miner preserve in preparation for a public walk I'm leading tomorrow afternoon. Despite the almost historic drought, the refuge looks pretty good, with an abundance of wildflowers, Joe Pye Weed in particular, that are attracting an equal abundance of the butterflies we're hoping to see on the trek. With any luck there'll be Monarchs, which have been happily present every time I've been to Miner, and maybe this very tattered Great Spangled Fritillary will still be on the wing to give us a feel for a butterfly's potentially "hard knock life." Actually, when I saw this Frit, the first song that came to mind was not from Annie, but rather the Cisco Houston version of a Woody Guthrie classic: "I've been doin' some hard travelin', I thought you know'd... I've been doin' some hard travelin', way down the road..." Hard travelin' indeed... but still, today, travelin', albeit gingerly—like an old hobo nearing the end of the line.