Today was a day for butterflies. I saw (3) Monarchs at Las Leones Park today (in the Santa Monica Mtns near the Beach), or maybe it was the same one (3) times! Anyway, it felt nice to watch them in the 70dg day of mid-February. Next, I moved on to Warner Park in Woodland Hills (the Valley). I didn’t expect to see any butterflies but, what to my wondering eyes DID I see but a yellow swallowtail, swooping from high up in the pine trees, and then a brown butterfly. I started to photograph the swallowtail, but it was too fast! Then the brown started to chase the swallowtail, also too fast for me.
Then the brown decided my head was of interest – so he flew directly AT me! I moved to get a shot, and he backed off and tried again just moments later, and yet again. I figured out that he was interested in the sweat on my brow (80dgs here). He most likely had just hatched due to the warm temps, (he was very fresh and perky) and the swallowtail, too. I finally gave up on the shot. Then, the brown butterfly came to me.
First, I felt the soft drag of his feet in my hair. I held still while a squirrel on a nearby tree trunk looked on in good humor, I suppose. “Lady, do you know you have a butterfly in your hair?” Then the butterfly moved to my hand, and I could watch him close up, see a bit of blue along his brown body. We regarded each other for a long time. Then, up and away. I put down my camera and watched while ANOTHER brown butterfly met up with him! Together they whirled and twirled until I lost sight of the pair.
While most of the country was cold and full of snow and ice, here it was an amazing butterfly kind of day~
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