Chasing An Orange Dog Part 2

This beautiful fragrant Summer Sweet bush was the next stop for our big yellow and black butterfly.  Ed's quarry flitted off  very quickly.  It is
 a Monarch butterfly that we see in this picture.  This year there are enough Monarchs around that we see several in the garden every day. After several years with only a few it is delightful to see them often.  But what about the Orange Dog?  For the moment it seemed to be gone.  It looked like the chase was over.

Right before we headed inside for the day the Giant Swallowtail visited the butterfly bush next to Ed's stone wall.  At last we got our close-up. 

When the camera clicked again the Orange Dog took off.  You can see his wings beginning to move in this picture.  Neither the Orange Dog nor Ed's safety glasses have been seen since!

Chasing An Orange Dog

We saw the first ever orange dog aka Giant Swallowtail butterfly in the garden on August 25, 2016.  At that time we were unable to get a picture. Another of the big bright black and yellow butterflies made a appearance in the garden this year.   This time Ed was not planning to let it get away!  The butterfly can be seen in this picture, but Ed wanted to get closer.

Now he was getting even closer but the butterfly kept moving.

At some point in the chase, Ed removed his safety glasses to get a better shot.  This picture is closer still.

As soon as the camera clicked  taking this even closer picture, the butterfly took off heading east to another part of the garden.  Not ready to give up, Ed continued the chase.  We will continue this saga in Chasing An Orange Dog Part 2.  Will Ed get a  great close-up of this magnificent butterfly?  Will he ever find his safety glasses among the rampant growth of this year's garden?

The Monarch And The Giant

The Monarch caterpillar is growing fast.  The red milkweed bug is gone.  Here he is cutting the vein of the leaf to reduce the amount of white poisonous sap in the leaf that is next on the menu.  A little milkweed sap makes it so he doesn't get eaten.  Too much is deadly.  Fortunately his instincts tell him what to do.

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It takes a sharp eye to notice a monarch caterpillar.  They often eat from under the leaves.  Check out the shaded leaf that is nearly gone and you might see him munching away.  At the left edge just below the center line of the photo, a small bit of the eating end of the caterpillar can be seen.

Ed and I had another fun morning in the garden.  Before we went inside for lunch we sat on the bench with a cold drink. We watched the hummingbird feeding on the cardinal flower flowers, perch on the moonflower wire support and eventually zoom up and away at breakneck speed.  A monarch butterfly fluttered across the stone wall and landed on the white phlox.  These days it is a joy to see a monarch, but a huge black and yellow butterfly chased him away.  It was moving fast but was so big and brightly marked, I wondered what it might be.  I knew I had never seen a butterfly like that here before.  I wished out loud that we could have gotten a closer look and then the butterfly landed on this Liatris plant just to the left of where we were sitting.  He spread his wings and ate for a considerable time.  I did not have the camera, but we both had time to memorize the markings of this stranger. After he flew away, we described aloud to each other exactly what we thought we had seen.   With our mental images clearly fixed, a check of our books revealed the name of this never before seen here butterfly.  The position of the wings has a dramatic impact on the placement of the bands of  bright yellow, but we are certain that we were looking at a Giant Swallowtail.  They do venture into southern Canada but are more commonly seen where citrus trees grow.  Citrus growers consider their caterpillars a pest and call them Orange Dogs.  Here the large bright yellow and black butterfly was a once in a lifetime event.    As we age it is natural to think that we have seen it all.  We have spent more than two decades here in close contact with what is going on around us.  Then along comes a stranger who gives us an extremely good look at him and we experience the wonder of seeing something for the very first time.