Swallowtales

The swallowtail butterflies have arrived. There's a few black ones, but mostly we get these yellows.

Saw a giant one on my way home from the library the other day. Swear it was almost as big as my hand and it preened for me for at least five minutes, flitting from flower to flower in front of the tax office.

Then on the main street I saw an injured one. It was flopping around, barely able to fly. When it landed, I checked it out. Picture me, crouching on the sidewalk talking to a butterfly. I thought at first the problem was a broken wing. He had a little chunk missing but on closer inspection I could see the real problem was his tails were caught in a fragment of spider web.

I tried to help. I explained to him, if he would just sit still for a moment, I could break up the web with a little stick and he would be able to fly again. He wasn't buying it. He freaked and tried to fly off a couple more times. The good news is, it appears he managed to break the webbing from all the activity. When I left him he was hanging from the tree, panting, but his wings were open again. So there's that. [photo]