Field guide No. 587
Snowflake wings in spring thaw
Moulting into weather.
A speckled moth rests on a wet window sill, one wing breaking up at its edge into snowflakes that drift off toward a thawing garden. It is going out with the frost.
Field noteMoth wings shed scales as dust. This moth’s wing breaks up into drifting snowflakes.
Also possible, also breaking material
Frayed copper lightning over a prairieLightning is a channel of hot air, but this bolt snapped in two and shows bare copper strands.
Wax transformer substation at midnightTransformers are steel and oil. Built in wax with lit wicks, they’d melt at the first load.
Scallop wing butterfly on blue rockWings made of shell, ribbed and fanned. It has the colouring for flight and the weight for the seabed.
Tangled rainbow signal on the rooftopA dish spills rainbow cables across the roof. The signal arrived in full colour and all at once.