…get to sing in my choir! But fair warning to you snake phobes: Don’t click on this one, unless you want to see a lovely butterfly bad enough to also see a beautiful snake!

May 1, 2022 – Once again I am driving slowly through Tensas River NWR, probably scanning the roadsides for birds, deer, wild turkey, maybe a bobcat or a bear–any of the things one can see in Tensas. Suddenly it struck me that I had just driven over something on the road. I hit the brake and checked my rear view mirror. Is that a snake? On, no, did I hit it?

Much to my relief, I had not hit it, but I had certainly alarmed it. But, wow! It was a Speckled Kingsnake (Lampropeltis holbrooki)n and my first, and only so far, encounter with one in the wild. This is not only a beautiful snake but a very beneficial one, being non-venomous and eating, among other things, venomous snakes. I clicked madly away until the snake calmed down, lowered its head and continued on its way across the road. I and a photographer friend who had approached from the other side of the snake stood by and waved off vehicles until it had safely made it to the other side.

Please, please don’t deliberately hit snakes on the road. All of God’s children really do belong in the choir.

May 19, 2023 – This photograph is a record! It is the first documentation of a Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) in Jackson Parish, La. And it is my fourth butterfly record! (See below.) Getting this shot is also a lesson in “always bring your camera along!” The location is private property; I was there with another member of the Louisiana Native Plant Society assessing the property for inclusion in our “certified habitat” program. Where there are native plants, there a butterflies. It’s practically a rule of the universe! I had no idea when this pale blue dainty fluttered by that it was a record.

My previous records: the first Juniper Hairstreak (Callophrys gryneus) in Vernon Parish, May 30, 2015; the first Southern Pearlyeye (Lethe portlandia) in Madison Parish, October 10, 2021; the first Summer Azure (Celastrina neglecta) in Tensas Parish, May 1, 2022.