Orange Butterflies and Autumn Dreams

   About this time every year, I begin to have a yearning for autumn.  I am tired of summer.  Autumn needs to hurry on its way and it needs to make everything instantly change...just for me.  I need red leaves.  I need cooler weather.  I need pumpkins!!!  There!  I said it!  Fall, where are you?

  This morning, I awoke to a certain briskness in the air.  A slight north wind played on the brain enough to send thoughts of Autumn arriving early this year.  Then, a butterfly decided that it would add its flair to the bucket.  A Gulf Fritillary alit on an orange zinnia and sat basking in the early morning sunlight.  The fritillaries do a migration for the winter months so come late summer or early fall here, and we start seeing masses of them.   Between these, the Monarchs and the Viceroys, the gardens appear to have orange flowers leaping from the stalks!  (For any who wish to plant gardens strictly to attract butterflies, I recommend planting zinnias.  Buy a pack of seeds from the local dollar store and you will have zinnias for life.  The seeds are easily dried and saved.)

  Back to my wish of an early autumn, that will all have to be a wait and see game.  One thing I have learned is that you can never change the weather or push the seasons, no matter how hard you try.  Still, that does not keep one from dreaming and I shall dream of cooler weather to come.

Orangeness!

   So, the color of today is orange!  Why?  Well, simple.  I am in an orange mood.  This mood was brought on by a butterfly and a flower.  An orange and black Gulf Fritillary Butterfly was sipping nectar from an orange zinnia.  If that does not get you into the orange mood, then nothing will!  Orange!  Orange and black...the colors of the butterfly...also, the colors of Halloween!  I love Halloween! So, I am in an orange mood AND I am decorating for Halloween!  Yep, it is early but I say do what makes you happy.  Halloween makes me happy so I am doing what I please.  Besides, the critters of the Bayou do not care if the Little Bayou House is decorated for Halloween in the middle of September!

  It seems to me that orange is definitely the color of fall.  Orange leaves, pumpkins, Halloween, flowers, persimmons, the Harvest moon, sunrises, sunsets...all things orange seem to be found in the fall!  (Yes, I do realize that the sun rises and sets year round but it definitely splashes the sky with color more starting in the fall and running through winter.)  With all this orangeness going on, you would think it is my favorite color.  Well, it is one.  The other is black..the lack of color.  Put those two together and, wham!  Halloween!  Favorite!

Butterflies do sleep!

  As a kid, I was taught in grade school that butterflies only lived one day as an adult.  They had to morph, find a mate, eat, lay eggs all in twenty-four hours.  By morning, their lives ended and a new generation took over.  My later years proved this "fact" as fallacy.  Most butterfly species live at least a week and some live up to a year!  There may actually be a "one day wonder" but not according to most butterfly websites.  School taught me a lot of things but, the older I get, the more I find that what I learned was not always fact.

  That said, if butterflies do live longer than one day, they have a lot of time on their hands!  Then came another question...if butterflies live more than twenty-four hours, do they sleep?  Well, yes.  Butterflies do sleep.  In fact, it would be rather ridiculous to think they do not.  At night, butterflies find a safe spot under a leaf or branch or in the midst of a shrub to hang upside down.  There, they do sleep.  In inclement weather, they will find a more sheltered place (thicker shrub or under the eaves of a building if available).  The butterflies will stay hanging in this manner until the morning sunshine warms their bodies allowing them to fly.  As the day begins, the butterflies flutter about the area seeking sustenance from flowers and letting us admire their beauty!

  This small Gulf Fritillary Butterfly was found on my pre-dawn hike around the lower part of the property.  The path led past some weedy spots and I was fortunate enough to spot the beauty.  Since the sun had not risen, the butterfly stayed put and I was able to photograph it quite easily.  This is how butterflies spend the night!  Butterflies do sleep!

Warning! Don't Eat Me!

  Son has often said that if you ingest things that are slightly "toxic" over a period of time, your body will build an immunity to said substance.  I imagine there is some logic in that idea since he is probably the most logical person I know.  You can depend upon his reasonings without a shred of doubt.  That said, even though I fully trust his word, I have yet to find myself with this overwhelming urge to attempt munching on some known toxin.  However, there are some critters that do just that.  They can happily dine upon things that would send the rest of the world for a loop and they do it without seemingly any dire effects.

  Take, for instance, the Gulf Fritillary Butterfly.  The caterpillar will feed upon vines known to contain toxic chemicals and, yet, the caterpillar shows no ill effects, whatsoever.  In fact, that diet is what is its lifeline, in more ways than one.  Since the caterpillar eats toxins, it is poisonous to anything that eats it.  The very thing that kills other critters saves the caterpillar's life.  One of the identified host plants is the passion flower vine.  Its toxic chemicals stay in the caterpillar's body even after it transforms into a butterfly.  This makes the butterfly toxic to other critters (such as birds) that wish to eat it.  The bright orange coloring is a warning!

  This pretty butterfly visited the gardens this morning and seemed to be partial to resting in the nandina bushes.  Occasionally, it would flit down to hover over the lantana blooms before heading back to the nandinas.  The morning sunbeams made its orange wings seem even brighter than normal making me think of fall...orange always makes me think of fall.  A bit of wishful thinking there.

One is the loneliest number...err, butterfly

  The lack of Monarch Butterflies, once again, has me a bit befuddled. Usually during this time of year, the purple ageratums are covered with the butterflies as they make a pit stop on the Coast during their migration.  This fall, I have seen a grand total of one..one..and only one. Don't get me wrong, there are all sorts of other butterflies and moths visiting the Bayou but the lack of Monarchs does indeed make me a bit sad.  I love the beauty of the bright orange and black insects as they flit about the flowers.  

  This afternoon, I found a butterfly on the ageratums but it was not a Monarch.  This was a Gulf Fritillary and although it mimics the Monarch in coloring, there is a definite difference.  First the Gulf Fritillary is smaller than the Monarch.  The markings of this butterfly are not as thickly etched in black as the Monarch is nor is the underside as prominently marked.  The Fritillary has much more silver on the undersides of its wings.  

  As the Fritillary bounced from bloom to bloom, the setting sun caught that silvery lining and made it absolutely gleam.  I stood spellbound for a few minutes while the insect sipped nectar. The glimmering made me think of how not too very long ago, butterflies were mass killed to be used as an art medium.  Their brightly colored wings were used in making jewelry.  Pieces of actual butterfly wings were placed in lockets or under glass and made into pendants.  Granted the pieces are gorgeous and I admit that I have one.  No, I did not buy the thing.  It was passed down from generation to generation and then handed over to me.  Just a few years ago, I gave it to my daughter. She actually wore the thing during her wedding as to have a memento of her grandmother close by her during  this special day.  But no matter how special the tiny pendant is because of family ties, it tugs at the old heart knowing that one of the beautiful butterflies perished to create it. It is nice to know that there are now laws to prohibit mass killing of butterflies for things like that but these laws do not cover the killings caused by insecticides that are dumped on blooms each year.  The butterflies and honeybees suffer because of the "need" to eradicate all bugs from gardens. 

  Well, I will enjoy my lone Gulf Fritillary and one Monarch that visited this year and I will count my blessings for the thousands of Swallowtails that call the Bayou home!  No chemical sprays for me and my butterflies (and honeybees!).