Winter

When I look outside, it looks like spring! The sun is shining, everything is in bloom. Cherry trees! Violets! Daphnne! Sour grass! Acacia! Daffodils! It is the best time of year in Berkeley. The days are getting longer and everything is colorful: pink and white, yellow and purple, and of course very green from the rain. Pictured above is the aristolochia (pipevine) which blooms before it gets leaves. Those maroon flowers look like dead meat to the flies which pollinate it. The butterflies don't like the flowers much, but pipevine swallotails lay their eggs on it. I haven't had any in my yard, where these plants are, but hope springs eternal. Maybe this year I will have a colony.
It may be spring for the plants, but in the insect world, it is the dead of winter. I have no caterpillars in the house, the last gulf fritillary pupated a couple of weeks ago. No eggs or caterpillars outside. It is very difficult to find specimens this time of year. But I have seen a few adults flying the past couple of weeks. A cabbage white was in my yard yesterday. A California tortiseshell graced a sign on Telegraph avenue the day before. Mourning cloaks have been flying at the UC Bot garden. So I suppose the butterfly spring will be starting soon, although in past years it always seems like it took months between the first flight and first egg laying. I am looking forward to the next crop of caterpillars. I am going to need them for my classroom presentations.