When the plan goes out the window

I had a plan today.  My plan was to go back to the fields where I saw my trio of mantids yesterday.  Check.  And then, my plan was to photograph all of the mating pairs of dragon and damselflies I saw when I was there yesterday (honestly, they were everywhere I looked).  And that is when things went to hell.  No mating dragons.  No mating damsels.  In fact, very few dragons or damsels at all.  Perhaps the weather wasn't quite right (overcast and breezy).  Still...  

I did manage to find the mantids again and was not surprised to find only one male on her today.  She smiled and waved.  And I think she might have burped.  Hard to know with mantids.  

I returned to the garden, knowing that I'd find plenty of things to aim my camera at here.  And I did.  In fact, I was all ready to blip this fluffy bee on a bright orange flower when a bit of motion in the milkweed caught my eye.  A Banded Net-wing beetle.  Yep, that's a beetle.  A very fancy one.  People frequently mistake them for moths because of the color and shape, but the segmented antennae are 100% beetle.  Anyway, I've not seen many this year and since I was able to catch this one with it's shell open, revealing the gossamer wings...well, it had to be blipped.

I released six monarchs today with more queued up for tomorrow.  And I am still finding some fairly large caterpillars in the various milkweed patches in the garden.  I relocated one to a better plant today, but am otherwise leaving them in place.  Nature will have to take it's course.  I still have roughly a dozen to get to chrysalis before I can relax. One of the males I released today flew up in the air...and then returned and landed on my shoulder.  So, we hung out for a while and chatted about this and that.  As one does.

Happy Friday.
xo
Debbi