Butterfly Kisses

These are the butterfly days of summer. When we awoke, we discovered a red-spotted purple had moved onto our front porch. It found something that it loved on one of the gardening gloves, and there it sat, its proboscis working quickly, slurping up that good and tasty thing.

Every time we'd go in or out, the butterfly would flitter around our heads, and finally land, again, on the gloves or one of the little towels we have lying in a stack by the door. A very fluttery, very friendly butterfly.

My husband reached his finger out to touch it, finally. It is not a thing we usually do. For we try to resist the urge to touch the wild things we love. For the most part, they do not need or want our help, but only to be left alone. And the butterfly, for its part, reached out its proboscis and tasted his finger, very, very gently.

The photo above documents the moment of contact. You know: when you go mano a proboscis with a butterfly. Apparently my husband has a flavor, maybe even a GOOD flavor, which is something I had long suspected myself.

The butterfly didn't flinch, merely licked, sort of, or whatever one does with a proboscis. And then the finger was withdrawn, but the person who owned it was somehow different, forever changed: for he had been kissed by a butterfly!

We had another special visitor on this day; which means, perhaps, that we are in the midst of some sort of pollinator frenzy. I saw the fancy bug and I instantly knew: hummingbird moth! And I ran for the camera. In the extras, you may see its photo, as it feasts on monarda.

The other day, I showed you one of our area's two hummingbird moths, the hummingbird clearwing, Hemaris thysbe, with its thick maroon body. Today, let me show you its smaller, blonder cousin: the snowberry clearwing, Hemaris diffinis. What a great day for bugs!

The soundtrack for the picture above is Bob Carlisle, with Butterfly Kisses.