Saving The Monarch

I planted milkweed this spring for the Monarch butterflies, to see if it would work as fuel for their long flight to the mountains in Mexico. Sure enough, they've been lined up this week, waiting their turn to get whatever it is they get from the plant.

I have seen them flying south before a cold front at the farm.  Legions of Monarchs from high specks in the sky to ground level.  It was beautiful. 

It is hard to fathom how they know where to go, especially since they weren't born in Mexico, have no weathermen to warn of an impending cold front and their return is tenuous at best as they end up on many windshields, etc.  

The winds were fierce this week and with those thin wings acting as sails, they often had to fly past the milkweed and come back to them with the wind at their backs.  I don't know how they battled those winds.

Tulsa just recently built butterfly way stations on an piece of land.  Patches of wildflowers and milkweed to rest and feast upon before their long flight home. Deforestation and environmental practices have depleted their numbers.  I'm going to plant more milkweed next year.  

The Natural World

I've had this tableau tucked in a corner for several years.  So, I got it out, cleaned it up, added a few more things and Voila.  I consider myself something of a naturalist; look and find all sorts of things on the farm and read about them.  My sister calls me Mother Earth.

Had trouble photographing this guy, but the red changes colors from different angles.

Isn't he a beaut? Would have loved to see his wings extended, but this is the way I found him.

Screech Owl skull with his right ocular bone nearby.  They are really tiny under all those feathers.  The sound  they make is like a woman screaming.

Some type of shorebird or tern.

This is a baby snake skeleton which was nearly impossible to photograph.

So this is where it ended up; crowns my new ikea medical cabinet.

Now all I need to do is fill the cabinet.  

Papillon in Paris

As I usually gravitate to nature and all things animal, butterfly specimens beautifully mounted and  framed, were in abundance at the Paris flea and antique markets.  This white beauty was at least 6 inches across. 

Fly Away

I found this drowsy butterfly lying on the ground before the first cold front arrived this past fall. I picked it up and placed it on the boxwood hedge before the cats found it. The monarch butterflies fly south ahead of the first real cold front each year. I hope this one fluttered off in time too.