Jana Malinek Photography: Mexico: HUMMINGBIRD HILL RANCH

December!
It is cold!, you said.
Cold for the hummingbirds, cold for the butterflies, cold for the flowers to bloom. Cold for your gardens!

Are you kidding me?

Don't you remember what WINTER is? It looks like this!!!!

And this is a Winter's blossom.

Glasswinged butterflies have see-through wings.

But look around your December garden!

The very first thing I see are the colors!
Zinnias, impatiens, calla lilies and so many more; even roses!

The second one are BUTTERFLIES!

Not too many birds, that's true: only ONE hummingbird and a peregrine falcon on a far away tree.

So yes. It must be winter!

Glasswinged butterflies (Greta oto)

Eastern Black swallowtail (Papilio polyxenes asterius)

Black Swallowtail!
No, it does not sit still! Like all the other swallowtails it is a large and powerful butterfly that, just like the rest of the animal kingdom, does not like being photographed.

Its flight patterns are unpredictable but patience and observation might increase my chance.
Just like the rest of the living world this guy cares about only two things.
Food and sex.

And the plants know that!
They too need to reproduce and they will employ this beauty to help them to carry on.
They lure him by nectar but they are smart; they do not produce the sweet stuff non stop.
Why should they? Let the butterfly come in, feed a bit and carry the pollen to another flower. Then take a break and produce more nectar later on.
The butterfly might bring other flower's pollen in return.

So the colorful insects fly here and fly there - checking for the sweet droplets cleverly hidden at the bases of the colorful petals.

Mexican Silverspot (Dione moneta)

Rather than chasing after these gems it might be better to sit still and figure out which blossoms are producing, chances are that the butterfly will come back more than once.

That at least that is my approach.

Mexican Silverspot (Dione moneta) with closed wings

Eighty-eight (Diaethria astala)

Eighty-eight (Diaethria astala), wings closed

Eighty-eight - 88 - is an elegant butterfly inside and out!
Wings closed it shows gray, black and red with all accompanied with a pair of matching antennae.

Wings open and a flash of iridescent blue comes out of blue so dark it's almost black.

The Cloudless Sulphur (Phoebis sennae) showed up as well.

And the flowers?
Though there are many others, zinnias seem to be the most popular flowers of all.

Tisha saw me running about her gardens - camera. tripod and all.

"Going crazy yet?" she asked. "Here!" She handed me a large leaf.
"I picked it up for you."

All I could do was gasp. A Sphinx Moth caterpillar!

"I'll take you out this afternoon," she promised. "We will find more stuff."
She is just as crazy about nature and photography as I.

Where there are insects, there are spiders ..... tiny but colorful. It takes effort to photograph them in their environment. Not only because the silky spiderweb sways in the breeze but mainly because of Baby. Baby? Yes, the cute inquisitive puppy of a street origin. Every time I manage to focus without making the spiders to run for cover, Baby shows up, happily wagging its white tail.
As if to say:
"What are you doing in the bushes? I can certainly help!"

Brugmansia is known as "Angel's trumpet". It is as toxic as it is beautiful. It is closely realted to Datura.

Leaf hoppers (family Cicadellidae) on zinnia.

OK, I did not get the green leaf hopper in focus but still: this is for the entire WWW (Whole Wide World) to ask: why does a tiny half-a-centimeter bug need such beautiful color combo? Green-white and gold!
Only a giant of my proportions would ask a question like that.