The Monarch and the Pipevine Swallowtail on a Thistle

There was a time when I suspected I had seen a Monarch butterfly on my property. and it flew circles around me very fast, so it was impossible to take its picture. In those days, all varieties of milkweed were flourishing on my property, and Great Spangled Fritillaries were quite common and accessible. But the Monarch was rare and elusive.

Yesterday, standing out in the field, in an area I like to call the meadow, where a variety of wildflowers bloom, I had no trouble at all spotting and filming and even taking still photos of a Monarch butterfly.

There were no Great Spangled Fritillaries in sight, and also no milkweed. In fact, the milkweed flowers this year were all eaten by deer, so that even when an expert on milkweed asked me to help him by gathering seed, I could not. The flowers were never given a chance to become seedpods. If milkweed is to continue to grow here, it will have to propagate from the root and not from seeds. This is the reality when the deer are this plentiful. But the side benefit is that there is relatively little poison ivy growing in the meadow, because the deer appear to have eaten it down, and they also left generous trails around the flowers, which allow me to walk unmolested among the flowers.

Yesterday, standing in the field and texting to a far away friend in California, I was able to see not only a Monarch, but also a Pipevine Swallowtail butterfly feeding side by side on a thistle plant.

The Pipevine Swallowtail was more flighty than the Monarch.

But when Swallowtail flew off, the friendly Monarch came and joined him, and the two continued feeding close together.

I have held Pipevine Swallowtails in my hand before. This is soon after they emerge as butterflies, when their wings are not yet dry, or after an injury. But when they are in their prime, they flutter so much that it is hard to get a good picture, because they are constantly flapping their wings.

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They flap their wings so much even when hovering over a flower, that the closeups are a little blurry.

In any event, if there had been any doubt whatever that there are both Monarchs and Pipevine Swallowtails coexisting in my meadow, then this should set those doubts to rest. But sometimes it's not that no one believes you. Sometimes it's that they just don't care.

When I showed Bow my butterfly pictures yesterday, he quickly scrolled away from them, looking for pictures of himself, instead. In the same way, I don't actually believe any longer that if I could only "prove" that Bow can spell, it would make a big difference. Mankind is so transfixed by its own marvelous image, that most people, and especially those in the scientific community, would not look at proof that takes away from our stunning image.

But just when I thought that nobody was paying any  attention to my butterfly images, I got a comment from Scotland, about the thistle flower. "Wow! I didn't know that Scottish thistle grew in the USA!"

There was in fact another person locally who told me the thistle was an "invasive".  If so, good for it! Here is a song about the thistle that I like to listen to in my spare time.

Brief Encounter with a Monarch

Yesterday when I went for my walk, three different Monarch butterflies, on three separate occasions,  flew right toward me and then away. I was too surprised the first time to be able to film it. I had barely gotten out the door. This was the second time.

 The third time happened right after this one, when I was trying to watch footage of this clip on my phone. I have sweetened the vision for you by adding a snippet of music by Debussy and slowing down the butterfly's motion. But in real life the experience was even grander.

Cowboy Meets Nala

Anytime something interesting happens outside, I share the footage with Bow.

The most interesting thing that happened yesterday was a chance meeting between Nala the kitten and Cowboy, the neighbor dog.

I was just out there enjoying the wildflowers by the fence and watching the insects that buzzed and fluttered around them.

The kitten, Nala, has taken to following me wherever I go, and on hot days, she naps in the shade while I chase butterflies.

While I was on the lookout for Monarchs, and searching between the blooms of the bidens artistosa, along came Cowboy, the neighbor dog.

Everybody in the neighborhood knows Cowboy by name, and we all accept him on our land, because he is an exceptionally well mannered dog. He does not chase livestock. He does not tease my dogs, and in general he seems to understand the rules of civilized behavior. But Nala had never met him before, and she was very defensive.

It took quite a few minutes before the standoff was over. Cowboy was friendly, but he did not force himself on Nala. He just circled her at a discreet distance, with his tail wagging.

Eventually, a truce was established. Nala rested in the shade, and Cowboy stayed far away from her.

This arrangement left me the time to watch a Monarch butterfly on my side of the fence as it made its way to the other side.

Should dogs be allowed to roam free, even when they are owned? It depends on the dog. If he is well behaved, why not? There was a time when all dogs roamed free, and when they behaved badly they were shot. This left only well behaved dogs roaming the streets, the fields and the pastures.

It seems counter-intuitive, but a laissez faire policy -- both toward the dogs and towards the people who have to defend their property from unruly dogs -- is ultimately much more humane and results in a much happier situation for both dogs and humans than a policy of zero tolerance for strays and zero tolerance for property owners defending what is theirs with a gun.

I saw a situation where strays wandered free when I lived in Taiwan: The Strays of Tamsui. The dogs were well behaved and would not even accept food from a stranger on the street. They stayed well clear of passers-by, and they never formed hostile bands. Some people that I spoke to about how idyllic this situation was told me I was naive. There had been great cruelty to dogs that led to this well behaved population of strays. I was not being naive. I understood that a balance has to be struck.

I understand that dogs can form gangs. I have seen this with my own eyes here on my land. I have had one dog killed by other dogs, and I have had to stand my ground and defend against attacking dogs, long before there was an animal shelter in this county. I am not naive.

But here is the takeaway: if you want to be able to allow nice dogs like Cowboy to roam, you need to take the risk that every once in a while, a stray may have to be shot by a landowner. This is part of the process that creates a balance. Balance is not some kind of hippy notion of peace and flowers. Balance means the give and take that allows us to move freely among others, with each individual respecting the rights of others. If you take away all the guns and the freedom of motion, that balance can never be established. And that's true about free range children, too, and maybe someday chimpanzees as well.

After all, we did the same with humans in general. We didn't just miraculously become more enlightened until it became safe to walk among strangers in peace. We just culled out those among us with the more violent tendencies. Sometimes people forget that.

Comfortable Enough to Nap

I believe that there are many benefits from taking naps throughout the day, whenever the spirit moves us. Most of us would have trouble doing this in a public place, or where we think we might be attacked or censured. One of the benefits of working at home is that you feel comfortable enough to do what feels natural.

Bow napping indoors yesterday

A friend phoned yesterday, and while we were chatting, he asked me, almost at random: "When chimpanzees are asleep, do they sleep with their toes stretched out or curled in?" I answered at once: "Curled in." But this was not because I actually knew the answer. It's because all I had to do was glance over at Bow where he was napping, and I could see what he was doing. This is not a scientific random statistical sampling, and it may not be true of every chimpanzee, but it is of Bow.

Sometimes Bow wants to know what I have been up to while I take my walks, or when I am away, and I show him videos. Yesterday afternoon, I showed him quite a few of them, many of them from Orchard House, until he was satisfied. Then he went to lie down on his blanket, yawned and started napping. 

A damaged anglewing butterfly in my backyard, surrounded by well meaning dogs

You cannot take a nap unless you feel comfortable and safe. And I think this kind of relative safety is what even the butterflies experience on my property. After I returned from my trip last weekend, I encountered an injured anglewing butterfly. Some people call this type a tree bark butterfly, because when the wings are folded that is what it looks like: tree bark. But in fact, the Latin name of all these anglewing butterflies is polygonia, because of the polygons that their wings are shaped into. And the English name is usually after a punctuation mark. But I am  not absolutely sure if this one is supposed to be a comma or a question mark. 

The remarkable thing about this butterfly in my backyard is that it was able to rest on the ground, while the dogs walked past, and nobody bothered it. It felt that safe.

Two Monarchs embrace

Now, I wish that the Monarch butterflies felt this comfortable around me. I have to admit that they still do not. But we have made progress. Yesterday, I saw two of them embracing just on the other side of my fence. They chose to do this not on my property, but so very close to the border that I could see them clearly while standing on my own land!

There was also a pearl crescent feeding on a flower on my side of the fence. When the pearl crescent flew past them, that is when the two Monarchs came apart, and the female flew off first.

Startled by a Pearl Crescent, the two Monarchs move apart

The male was left alone for a moment, and then he flew off, too.

The male is the last to fly off

After they flew away, they came flying back. 

Flying past again

First one, and then the other appeared, going in the opposite direction from where they had fled to. 

Now these are not my Monarchs. They were in the neighbors's field. But it was so close! I have never been this close to a Monarch before, let alone, two.