Getaway Day Got A Way and a Surprise

          They were fat and happy. We knew that they were going. They knew that they were going. They started sniffing as if at the faraway hills. We sat with our coffee and cameras. Nothing. They cut a new leafstem for a new course, so we did the same, going in for breakfast. When we came out, one of the amigos was gone. We stayed an hour, no one left. We went in to get properly dressed for the day. Returning shortly after, two more were gone and untraceable. Two hours later, we went in to cool off. You got it -- the next flew the coop, Were they doing this on purpose? 
           Finally, Martin, the last of the amigos, went on his merry way, down the stalk and into the violets, where he rested for an hour. He moved six inches...and rested some more. After this second interval, he finally went to find his new leaf on life, wisely picking the hydrangea. Good cover, sturdy leaves, and a proven record of birthing baby butterflies. There he planked.

          Stephanie kept watch on Martin because caterpillars sometimes change their mind, while I transferred over to a different section of the garden to track another Monarch on the move. Jack, the wind-sniffer above, has just fled. We spotted him, but he was marching up another milkweed and started feeding again. Everyone seemed settled, so we went in for iced tea. When we returned, Martin was still there, but now Jack was gone.
           But here is the surprise. Stephanie called from her seat outside the hydrangea, "We've got a second one here." My word, those Amigos really do stick together. Had Martin led us to one of his missing brothers?  Hmmm, something was not looking right. The colors were all wrong. And then we realized that this was not a Monarch but a Black Swallowtail, bowed, strapped in, and also preparing for metamorphosis. 

          It was like giving birth without knowing you were pregnant. Every day we had checked the nearby fennel for more caterpillars, but never had we seen one. But gloriosky, there it was. 
          And so today brought us here, to these scenes below: the first showing the Monarch in mid-transformation; the second, the Black Swallowtail fully transitioned; and the third, here especially for Margaret Renkl, the writhing chrysalis above, and the final skin shed, like a prom dress on the floor. . 

       Set the timer for ten days, and watch obsessively. And keep looking for the ones that got away. Salut!