Black swallowtail.
With their big flimsy wings, their ungainly bodies, their small insect eyes, butterflies fly astonishingly well. A few days ago, I watched a pair of American ladies chasing each other madly, not two or three feet apart, up and down and careening around the corners and roof-edge at Beech Nut. A couple had huge chunks of wing missing. These tough little ladies flew as purposefully as tree swallows or something. How the heck did they do that?
Grass.
With Jack at Beech Hill this afternoon, a black swallowtail fluttered about us in a breeze stout enough to rustle the trailside leaves, drown out the voices of distant birds, and create deep waves in the hillside grasses—and yet somehow alit deftly on a purple clover flower. It seemed positively buffeted, windblown, aimless. And yet it had great aim.
In gradeschool, we followed the miraculous metamorphosis from pupa to caterpillar to a creature with colorful unfurling wings. (We also watched a mantis egg-case hatch—that was cool.) And monarchs are famous for their long migration to tiny patches of Mexico or Baja California. And viceroys have adapted to look so like the poisonous monarch that birds just leave them alone.
We admire their colors, we take their photos, we hunt for their names. But Nature has injected some crazy engineering into butterflies. That’s some incredible evolution, right there.
Likely, I got thinking about butterflies because the birding was quiet. Stayed up late last night, slept in this morning. Chickadees, goldfinches, and a cardinal at my place. Gulls, song sparrows, more goldfinches, and another cardinal during my bike ride. (Also those ubiquitous roadside crows.) At the sunny hill, song and savannah sparrows, towhee and catbird, crow and titmouse and yellowthroat. Several human and canine hikers. And, of course, more goldfinches.
Some kind of berries.
Tonight the sky is clear. The air is cool. The moon is full.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Cedar waxwing
2. American goldfinch
3. Eastern towhee (voice)
4. Tufted titmouse
5. Savannah sparrow
6. American crow
7. Song sparrow
8. Common yellowthroat (voice)
9. Gray catbird
Elsewhere
10. Northern cardinal
11. Black-capped chickadee
12. Herring gull
13. House sparrow
14. Mourning dove
Tags: American crow, American goldfinch, black-capped chickadee, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, eastern towhee, gray catbird, herring gull, house sparrow, mourning dove, northern cardinal, savannah sparrow, song sparrow, tufted titmouse
