My Favorite Butterfly...

The swallowtail butterfly has always been my favorite - so large and graceful. Looks like more of them are going to be appearing here if all goes well with Mother Nature.

The other day I actually took time to sit out on the deck and read a bit. As I glanced up at the blue summer sky, this is what I saw. It looked like something pretty weird was going on in the tree.

Upon closer inspection, I found more of the strange caterpillars moving around on the leaves and branches.

This fellow moved about very quickly, with so much agility for his ungainly body size.

This is how they appear when they are "parked" on a leaf eating. I was able to identify them as being the caterpillar stage of the Tiger Swallowtail butterfly.

It was windy last night but they all still managed to stay tightly attached to the leaves.

There are at least five and maybe more on the tree. The tree is in a big pot waiting to be planted. It has been suffering a bit in the heat and I have been keeping a close watch on it. It is a Marshall Seedless ash tree. It just so happens that ash trees are a favorite host tree for the swallowtail butterfly to lay eggs on. They also like aspen trees, so I guess I should go check out the aspen trees in the front yard for signs of activity.

I am so excited to have this opportunity to watch what happens next with the caterpillars. It will be interesting to see how long they take to form into the chrysalis (or pupa) stage. I am assuming that they will winter over since it is so late in the season. Time will tell...

For now we will just enjoy the wonder of Mother Nature. What has Mother Nature brought to you this summer?