I’v been a bit indisposed lately – apparently I ate some bad shellfish in celebration of my birthday – so just a brief report headed into the weekend.
The katydids have started singing in the evening in the past two days. The Red Admirals have started mating in the yard in the past week. They’re the ones that fly up in a spiral, after which one of them lands back down in about the same place. (This is characteristic of the angle wings, or brush footed butterflies. We also see the American Paint with some regularity, although not yet this year.)
For the past week or so, we’ve been seeing the female Diana – they are the black ones that are thought to exhibit Batesian mimicry of the bad tasting Purple Swallowtail. The males, of course, are expendable, so they’re orange like the rest of the fritillaries.
After a summer that started worryingly dry – at least for gardeners – we’ve been having a whole lot of rain. It has also been quite muggy of late. It hasn’t been that hot in terms of temperatures, but at times it has been a bit warm to totally enjoy the deck, especially when there isn’t a breeze. Probably a good time to enjoy the lake or the river.