Patrolling the buddleia

Every year in the late summer, the female carpenter bees come out and start feeding in preparation for winter.  And when the ladies arrive, so do their suitors.  The males spend most of their time patrolling the airspace, trying to guard their lady/ladies.  By my best count, there were a half dozen females on the buddleia with only this one male to cover the territory.  He was doing his very best, even bumping me when I got too close.  Nothing to fear from male carpenter bees as they are unable to sting or bite - they are pretty much reduced to bumping.  This poor guy was also being harrassed by a much smaller skipper butterfly - not sure what that was about!

Yesterday I offered to dedicate my butterfly releases to anyone who wants to remember a loved one who's left this world.  I was touched by those of you who responded.  Today, I had the great honor to release two beautiful female monarchs, one in memory of SimpleMoments' beloved sister, Cathy and the other in memory of BikerBear's mum, Alma and the beautiful Shadow.  I was not able to get good individual photos of these two butterflies as they were anxious to fly, but I did take a quick shot in thie enclosure just after the second one emerged - see Extra. The second one was only about 5 minutes into the world, so it's wings were still droopy.  But  both butterflies were perfect and both soared high up into the trees after clinging to my finger for a few scant seconds.  

Please leave me a message in comments if you want me to send a butterfly on its way for someone special.  I expect to release well over 50 butterflies in the next 5 weeks.  I'm keeping a list of each person's request and when I send the butterflies on their way, I always take a moment to send some positive energy into the universe.  

When I ran over to my neighbors' farm this morning to get milkweed, I got a chance to watch a whole flock of young starlings being silly; then came across a family of Eastern Phoebe's who were taking small insects in the air over the fields.  A joy to watch.  

I dropped my iPhone last night and the screen hit my nightstand and shattered - yuck.  Rather than forking out a stupid amount of money on a new phone, I found a local guy who replaced the screen for only $75.  Took an hour and seems as good as new.  And, when I went to pick it up, Hubs went with me and we had a lunch date.  

Thanks for stopping by!

xo
Debbi