Mating Monarchs

This is not a photograph you see everyday.  In fact it's amazing that I got this picture at all.  Ed was mowing the area  by the bluebird houses that I can see from my kitchen window.  He noticed a pair of mating Monarch butterflies on a milkweed plant.  He stopped mowing and  called me so I could see the coupled pair.  Over the years he has seen this many times back where we have acres of milkweed growing, but this was my first time!  I thought it might be rude and insensitive to get the camera to record this event, but I went back in the house to get the camera deciding if they were still there I would give it a shot.  I slowly approached being respectful and quiet but when I got almost close enough, they flew away.  I snapped a picture anyway pointing the camera in their general direction.  Ed had been watching me and was positive that I got a blurry picture of nothing. I  can't believe my luck!  This is not part of a video!  It has not been enhanced, cropped, centered or in any way altered.

Wildlife centered gardening can be a bit tricky.  We leave the milkweed so that the mating butterflies have plenty of leaves on which to lay their eggs.  However Bluebirds and Tree Swallows like to be next to an area of short vegetation so they can fly directly into their nest.  One box that can't be seen in this picture is currently empty.  Nearly grown  Tree Swallow babies  are in the box you can see.  Frequent  feeding trips need to be made by the adults.  I watched and they swoop around the milkweed plants and into the hole in the nest box with ease.

Milkweed flowers are buzzing with  bees.  The scent of the plants is intoxicating!  I guess for the Monarchs it all comes together to put them "In The Mood"!