Fluttering Towards Normal

          Everybody has been asking, where are the butterflies? The bees? The bats? Across the board, while not quite a silent spring, it is an underpopulated season for many for our flying friends. Nature has her unseen rhythms, but with so many groups affected it was worrisome. A ranger at Fiery Gizzard recently confirmed they were getting the same phenomenon there. In the garden, the smorgasbord was open, but the diners were few -- a cabbage white was our most regular visitor. 
          Finally a turnaround seems to be happening. In the past ten days we have finally seen the return of a few Eastern Tiger Swallowtails, a male Monarch, Spicebush Swallowtails (above), the reliable Silver-Spotted skippers, little Pearl Crescents, and the tiniest butterfly we get, the dime-sized Eastern Tailed Blue. The American Lady, a common butterfly not seen in the garden since 2020, finally returned
           One can differentiate the American Lady from the Painted Lady by her underwing eyespots, two big ones instead of four. Playing peekaboo behind a butterfly bush blossom, we could clearly identify her before we saw her pretty face, below. 

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          Some of you may be wondering about our Black Swallowtail caterpillar. We were not able to follow it as it left the fennel 12 days ago, and could only hope that it successfully eclosed sometime in the past couple of days.  Despite numerous visits to the garden, we did not spot it. Swallowtails, when the emerge. hang, hardly moving, for an hour or two, then move up to dry out the opened wings, and then just fly off. It could be very easily missed, so we are hoping it made it. Here's a look back at another picture of the caterpillar munching on the fennel. 

          The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail comes in two colors, the standard yellow, and also, less frequently, in brown. Having the first of them arrive in the garden in July was extremely late, especially as we are situated close by two tulip trees, one of their host plants. 

          The Eastern Tailed Blue is really a small miracle. It could hide behind a marble. These are tiny bush sunflowers it is landing on. Its proboscis is as thin as a hair. 

             As the garden grows more mature, it is a little wilder, with tighter plantings, greater height, and denser undergrowth. The sparrows, wrens, titmice, and goldfinches have been loving it. But hummingbirds were among the missing as well. Happy to report they have finally found the purple bergamot, a native super-sized bee balm relative. Photographically, we would have loved this shot more when the flowers were in full glory, but still like this one. 

          In the milkweed patch, which is our raison d'etre, the plants are flourishing but we still await our most prized visitor, an egg-laying female Monarch. But as we slowly move towards a livelier garden, we hope she will be arriving soon. Our only Monarch was a male about ten days ago. The bee wanted his flower, but the Monarch wouldn't budge. 

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             For those photo fans who don't mind a little abstraction, here is a parting shot. Like the butterfly, come back soon.