The First Monarch

"They seemed to come suddenly upon happiness as if they had surprised a butterfly in the winter woods." - Edith Wharton

I made a visit to our butterfly garden in the morning, and much to my delight, I encountered my very first monarch butterfly of the season. It was quite happily feeding on some delicious echinops ritro, or globe thistle, which is also very popular with the bees.

I suddenly thought back to the big storm from the night before, and I remembered all of the small groups of tiny birds moving ahead of the big winds. Could some of those groups have been butterflies, instead? Could the storm have given them a strong headwind to shepherd them home? I'll never know.

This particular monarch is a female. You can't really tell in this shot, but when I got a good clear view of her hindwings, there were no tell-tale black spots (scent glands) that signify a male. (Learn more cool things about these butterflies here.)

The butterfly was not the only one who coveted those sweet globe thistles on this day. No, no, the fat fuzzy bumblebees were giving her a run for their money. And in fact, they tried to share the same plant with her on occasion, and even flew right at her, all of which caused her to flutter her wings at them. Relax, pollinators, there's plenty for all!

It wasn't winter, so I wasn't quite as surprised as if I'd found the butterfly in the winter woods, but it made me happy nonetheless. I came back outside around lunchtime and she was still there, noshing away quite happily. I snapped a few more photos, and this was one from that second batch. When I checked back later, she was gone.

The song to accompany this image of a female monarch butterfly feasting on globe thistle is by the Boone Girls (remember Debby Boone?). It's incorrectly identified in this YouTube posting as Butterfly Song, when in fact, the name of the tune is The First Butterfly.