Nature and her bounty

Went for a hike today (no photos, sorry), and can attest to the fact that butterflies are indeed out in force as, on this hike, were garter snakes, lizards, herons, raptors, tadpoles and other animals:

Heavy winter rains have led to billions of butterflies that are beginning to descend on California in what could be a record migration. Millions of butterflies that flew into the Central Valley in the last week of March could be just the advance guard of an unprecedented hoard. 'This may be the biggest migration of modern times,' said Arthur Shapiro, a professor and expert on butterflies at the University of California, Davis. There are now reports of billions of painted lady butterflies around Trona, near Death Valley, and in the San Fernando Valley, Shapiro said. More waves of butterflies are likely to appear in central California over the next few weeks.

Nature can be surprisingly generous, as we've also had at least one rainbow per day for the last five days, not to mention yesterday's hail storm.