What a summer!

This is has been one whale of a summer - figuratively speaking. I have had the opportunity to accompany my wife, Sue, three days a week every-other-week to Lava Beds National Monument where she is doing a butterfly census. We did not see one whale, but we've encountered thousands of butterflies, a few of them "Lifers."

If you're are a birder and keep a "Life List," you know what a thrill it is to see a new bird for the first time. It's the same for me when I see anything in nature for the first time, like that beautiful tailed copper butterfly.

My good friend Al St. John, one of Oregon's finest herpetologists, is the same way about reptiles and amphibians. Tom Rodhouse goes into a tizzy when he encounters a bat he's never seen. Stu Garrett, my doctor and good friend, is thrilled at finding new native plants.

Shucks, Bob Baker, one of my dear Friends on our Friends of the Sisters Library board is that way about a new book he's never read before.

For the know-it-all file:

You know how I am about knapweeds; I pull them as quickly as I see them, and get after anyone who has them in their yard, driveway, or wherever.

Well, there I was, driving the main road at Lava Beds, and what do I see growing along the shoulder: Russian knapweed! Without hesitation, I pulled the VW van over and bailed out to pull those infernal knapweeds.

"These do not belong in the USA...", I was muttering under my breath as I yanked them out of the ground.

I removed that one clump, but in a few yards I met up with some more, and then saw many more on the other side of the road. It was overwhelming! Then I recalled that the Park Service has a bunch of young and eager Youth Corps people working for them, so I decided to leave the rest for them to pull.

About an hour later, we met up with the weed-pullers on the park's main road near Devil's Homestead. Whereupon, a very lovely young woman with a nametag of "Jill" pinned to her NPS uniform greeted us warmly.

"Do you guys pull knapweed?" I asked as we shook hands.

"Oh, yes, we certainly do." Jill responded, "Did you see some?"

"I sure did," I replied, "and pulled a lot of it."

"Oh do you have it with you?" Jill asked.

"I sure do," I replied, opening the sliding door of our VW camper and handing her a bundle of freshly pulled plants.

Jill stood there looking at the plants, and said, "Oh, I'm sorry, sir, but these are not knapweed, these are dusty maidens."

"Those are Russian knapweed, honeybunch" I replied, positively.

"No, they are dusty maidens," Jill said. Then I looked her in the eye. I knew I was lost.

"Yep, they're 'dusty maidens, for sure...," I said to myself. I saw that "look" that people have when they know they're right, and I knew in my heart she knew Peck's plant bible inside out.

I could just hear the conversation in the maintenance yard that night. "Hey, you should have been out with us today, we met this old guy with the lady that's doing the butterfly census, and he was pulling dusty maidens, and then tried to tell us they were Russian knapweed. Tourists..."

Anyway, Sue and I are having a wonderful time seeing new butterflies; she had the good fortune to meet up with and photograph an old Lifer - the most beautiful butterfly in the Northwest (as far I'm concerned): The Great Purple Hairstreak. The last time we saw it was over 20 years ago at Lava Beds.

In addition, I had the wonderful opportunity to meet a new "Lifer," Douglas' Dusty Maiden, Chaenactis douglasii, a native wildflower I will never forget.