Male Eastern Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly

The purple buddleia in the sunny corner of my front yard seems to be where all the action is these days! It was the site of Saturday's female eastern tiger swallowtail and Sunday's fancy bug (thanks for all the views, stars, and comments on that!), and it is also the location of Monday's blip.

I had been working at home all day, and in late afternoon, I looked into the yard to see a flash of yellow. So out I went with the camera! At first, I thought it might be the same butterfly from Saturday. But when I looked closer, I noted that it did not have the blue on its exterior lower back wings (and so probably it was a male rather than a female), and the edges of its wings were a bit tattered. So it was a new visitor to my yard!

It was a very friendly butterfly, distracted enough by the purple glories of the butterfly bush that it was amenable to having its picture taken, again and again and again. And so it flitted from bloom to bloom, and I stood there documenting it.

I wondered for a minute if it might be an acquaintance of the female of its species that I'd seen on Saturday. And for a moment, I happily imagined the two of them meeting there - in my sunny yard, with the purple blooms all around - and then flitting away over the treetops together, perhaps never to be seen again (or at least not by me). I smiled at the thought, but it also made me feel wistful.

And then I noticed something - the gentle feeling of soft rain drops starting to fall. And so the drizzle began. And the butterfly continued to feed. And I stood there, and leaned over and sheltered my camera beneath myself, and continued taking pictures. And I thought about us, we two, just myself and the sweet yellow butterfly, both of us kissed by the gentle rain.

The song to accompany this butterfly picture is one I found this morning. I was not familiar with this artist, but I like the song. It's Abebe (Butterfly), by an artist named George Telek (sometimes referred to as just Telek), from Papua, New Guinea. The song is sung in his native language of Kuanua, and this is a translation of the lyrics:

Two butterflies representing spirits
of my ancestors fly over me, the magic man.

They fly to the beach and over the sea,
so far away they cannot be seen anymore.