Perfect Butterfly Duet / Double Lady Sippers

It was a day that began with a delightful view out the deck door windows. I pulled the drapes open, looked out, and there sat two female hummingbirds, enjoying a quiet breakfast together. I quickly grabbed the camera and got a few shots; you may see a picture of my double lady sippers in the extras.

Lest you think that our place has some special aura of spiritual peace, let me add that as soon as I got a few photos, the ladies leapt off their perches and began chasing each other round and round, which is the usual order of business here!

Later on, my husband told me there were some butterflies hanging around down in the front yard. I grabbed my camera and went out. A female monarch was laying eggs all over the milkweed patch! Hooray! Bring on the caterpillars!

Then later, the monarch flew over to the Mexican sunflower patch (Tithonia - PLANT SOME, the butterflies love it!) to enjoy a snack. Who knows? Maybe egg laying is hard work, and exhausting! Why wouldn't it be? As she enjoyed the orange bloom, a very battered and tattered pipevine swallowtail, Battus philenor, joined her there. You may see my best shot of the two of them above.

Now, here is one hardly ever and two nevers for this blip! One: we hardly ever get to see the hummingbirds sitting quietly, eating together. (A near-empty feeder in the meadow may be to blame for that on this morning; situation was instantly rectified, with feeder washed and refilled.)

Two: I have NEVER seen a pipevine swallowtail and a monarch sitting on the same bloom. And three: sometimes it goes a year or more between sightings of a pipevine swallowtail, and I have NEVER seen one in our yard! So this was a red-letter day for duos!

I wanted to pick two duets to go along with these two shots of double-critters enjoying a late August day. So here are Don Williams and Emmylou Harris, with If I Needed You, and Ed Sheeran and Andrea Bocelli, with Perfect Symphony.

P.S. My husband, perhaps not unlike many husbands, has the feeling that he sometimes does not get the recognition he deserves. So here is a shout-out to the guy I married, who never fails to let me know if something interesting and photo-worthy is going on in the yard! Hooray for the husband!

P.P.S. I honor and remember my father Lee and my sister Barb with this blip. Two or three years ago, I bought Mexican sunflower seeds and sent them out to friends and family, asking them to plant them for the butterflies, in honor of big sister Barb. My dad, of course, being the overachiever that Lee ALWAYS was in the horticultural area, turned his entire garden into a butterfly patch. It was chock full of orange blooms and butterflies that year. Now, as I see my own Mexican sunflower blooms come up, I am reminded of both of them: of my sister and her beloved butterflies, and my dad and his amazing green thumb! Come, butterflies, come and eat! (The twirly blue metal plant stake is from Ocean State. The shiny fairy twirl that glows in the dark is something Barb bought me many many years ago.)