Monarch Butterflies Arrive in Alberta
Weekly Photo Challenge: Movement
Four photos in one to show you the movement of butterfy wings. But not just any butterfly – this is a Monarch Butterfly! And it is in my garden! (Forgive all the exclamation marks, but I don’t think I have ever seen a Monarch butterfly in my yard before).
My very own Monarch Butterfly spent much of the morning sucking up the nectar of the Pink Painted Daisies.
There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
- Richard Buckminster Fuller -
Women, don’t get a tattoo. That butterfly looks great on your breast when you’re twenty or thirty, but when you get to seventy, it stretches into a condor.
- Billy Elmer -
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Another butterfly story: I Spy with my Little Eye, Something that is Orange
Beautiful butterflies…nary a moth in sight…!
Yes, they are very beautiful compared to many of the moths we have here!
We get a lot of those here in San Diego. We are on the mating flight path, as it were.
Then you can really understand how exciting it is to see them on their epic migration.
They are quite stunning.
Gorgeous butterfly shots. I spent a few weeks following the Monarchs on Monhegan Island, Maine. It was magical! Love the Bucky Fuller quote!!
Yes, their trip from Mexico to Canada is quite incredible. The butterfly in my yard is several generations removed from the butterfly that started the journey.
Love the butterflies! I loved going to the butterfly palace when I was in college in SW Missouri.
I’m glad to see you are safely back home, Mac. Glad my butterfly brought back the good memories.
Lovely photo capturing the movement.
Thanks. It was interesting to watch the butterfly open and close its wings as it ate.
Wow, I love your composition, it is just perfect. And the gorgeous macro shots are no less. Take care Margie
Thanks. I was very impressed with your helicopter scene – it was quite perfect too!
It must take a lot of patience to shoot these beautfiful pics. Thanks!
Actually it took very little patience. My butterfly was very obliging. I could get to within a foot of her/him and take as many pictures as I wanted.
So beautiful and creative!
Thank you Madelaine. If you move your eyes really quickly from one photo to the next, you can almost see movement!
Ooooh Margie – these shots are phenomenal! Sooo beautiful.
Thank you! My subject was one very beautiful (or handsome) model.
Wonderful!!!!!!!! Nothing more beautiful than a butterfly in the garden.
Most butterflies do not sit so quietly for so long. I guess the Monarch has not got much to fear – they are very bitter tasting.
These photos are beautiful, Margie. I’m not sure I’ve ever seen seen a monarch butterfly in person.
Apparently it is a good year for them, so perhaps more people will get a glimpse of them.
The photos are fantastic. Butterflies are so exciting.
When my girls were small we raised some Anise Swallowtails (my neighbor was an entomologist who taught us how to raise a number of butterflies.) When they emerged from the chrysalis they were very docile and the girls often got them to sit (carefully) on their fingers before we released them outside.
That would be an exciting project for children, or for anyone for that matter. I’ve never seen a butterfly emerging.
Lovely photos! The monarchs are so beautiful, and their journey is incredibly amazing.
The distance between their summer and winter homes can be 1200 to 2800 miles. Up to 5 generations of Monarchs are required to make the trip north, but the trip south is done by only one generation of butterflies. That is certainly incredible!
NOVA’s documentary about the Monarchs’ migration, The Incredible Journey of the Butterflies, was fascinating. Glad one of those amazing creatures chose to dwell in your yard for awhile.
I didn’t see that one, but wish I had.
Great to hear the Monarchs are all the way up there already. They got an early start this year because of the mild winter. So early, in fact, that around here the milkweed was barely up and I wondered what the caterpillars would do for food. Now we have drought, so I’m very pleased to hear of your beautiful visitor.
Apparently there are more Monarchs here in Alberta than there have ever been in recent history. That is good news.
Beautiful photos. Its so much fun to watch butterflies
I am much more interested in butterflies now that I am taking pictures of them. Thanks to the internet, it is pretty easy to identify them.
they are so very beautiful
I expect all Monarchs are very nice looking, but mine is exceptionally beautiful.
I have a friend who “raises” them. No I don’t understand all the details but she raises them from start to finish and posts pictures all over facebook! Pretty neat!
That would be a very interesting and satisfying hobby, I would imagine. A lot easier than caring for dogs or cats or goats, too.
Very pretty butterfly! Nice capture.
Thank you. Capture – an interesting verb when it comes to insects, don’t you think!
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why is it that we can be so deliciously mesmerized by a butterfly’s wings?
or their spotted little body, with their crooked little legs, and waving antennae?
thanks for sharing these beautiful photos. lovely. gorgeous, even.
Part of what I find fascinating is how they can look so delicate and fragile, and yet they can fly such long distances.
What a wondrous sight. Lovely images
Thanks – my butterfly is just so photogenic.
Stunning photos…
Thank you, and welcome to my blog!
Lovely photos and a nice idea to show the four shots in one!
Where else can you get a four in one special like this? Certainly not at Wal-Mart!
Fabulous!
Thanks – just trying to match your fireworks photos!
They’re beautiful! Especially love that first montage. Very clever and creative.
Thanks Marcie. If I had had more time, I could have made it into an animated GIF.
Fantastic– beautiful shots, Margie! There’s nothing quite like a monarch. We only seem to see them when our lilac is in bloom. I look forward to it every year.
My Monarch was here after the lilacs had bloomed. Good thing I had the daisies.
Regarding your quote on the tattoos, I just have to say that tattoos are cool: on young people and on old people. Old people with tattoos show the world that they are so much more awesome than the other, standard, lame boring old people.
http://imgur.com/972GU
I’m guessing you have a tattoo. Good on you! I don’t, so I’ll just have to be part of the other people.
I’m pretty sure that “the other people” also have a lot of cool stories to tell when they all gather at the old folks home
Gorgeous photos, Margie. You are so far north and you have Monarch butterflies, and I am in Virginia and haven’t seen any kind of butterfly in my garden yet. What’s with that?
Travel Alberta has done a pretty good job of advertising our province – maybe the Monarch Butterfly travel advisory group picked up on that!
At the 70th Street Station of the San Diego Trolley, there are quotes, information, sayings, etc., on all of the bases of the light poles. One is that catepillar quote from Fuller.
That sounds like a great location to take pictures of all those words of wisdom.
Thoroughly enjoyed this post and those incredible pictures. If you’d like to read another post about Monarchs, I wrote one at http://thecvillean.wordpress.com/2011/06/02/why-my-wife-loves-weed/.
P.S. Joining your happy band of followers.
Thanks for stopping by, Al. I joined your band of followers recently too! I enjoyed the story about your wife and her weed gathering. I can certainly appreciate her desire to help the children learn about Monarchs.