It's a Bird! It's a Plane!

It's a Swallowtail Butterfly!

For a moment they look like a bird, then like a toy, then like a bird again before you realize that these majestic creatures are beautiful butterflies!

Yesterday I was surprised to see them. I am not sure I have really noticed them in previous years - perhaps I have? - normally I am fairly observant and would see such an creature flying around my airspace. I spy eagles and errant kites and balloons from the park, I spot jets, helicopters, and other aircraft - especially the unusual ones. Of course I don't normally know which ones I might miss.

Yesterday was a glorious early summer day without a cloud in the sky which was still a brilliant blue rather than the faded blue that it can become when the temperature has climbed to our higher ones. I was on the balcony talking to my oldest friend - I have known him for over 40 of my 50 years - and I saw what looked like a golden bird, even perhaps like some sort of canary coming over the edge of the apartment roof and flying downwards. It almost seemed phoenix-like with the way the wings were. It didn't quite move fast enough for a bird which puzzled me and I thought about those old canary toys which had cellophane and paper canaries that you might twirl about your head on a thin bamboo stick. Then I realized that it was a butterfly.

Of course, the size of it faded like the afterimage of the Sun when you glance past it in the morning or afternoon. I saw a few others through the day, but further away and with nothing that I could compare their size to until just before supper time when I was in the meat market across the lane.

I was in there talking to the butcher, an acquaintance of mine, and the clerk seemed to be getting upset about something. Both front and back doors were open to the shop because they were repairing the central airconditioning and the clerk was upset because a butterfly was trapped between the counter and the front window. She was worried it would be trapped their and die or it might harm itself trying to get out.

I figured I might try to help, but the butcher calmly walked up and I watched as he gently placed his hands between the window and counter and this huge butterfly was coaxed onto his thumb. He carefully walked to the door and with a gentle move of his finger, he encouraged it to fly to freedom.

It did look wonderful taking wing with the mountains and sky as a backdrop.

I knew it wasn't a Monarch for though it had a similar black design in some ways, it was a golden yellow rather than red-orange colour. (image to left - image from Mountain Loop Highway, Glacier Peak Region, Washington - ©Tom Dempsey Photoseek.com)

The clerk asked how the butcher had done it and I joked, "Well he knows how to speak 'butterfly'. I learned a bit once too."

The butcher said, "Well actually years ago at one of the nurseries I ran we raised butterflies."

We chatted a bit and I found out they bought the cocoons and placed them on appropriate plants and let them emerge. They had an aviary of sorts with plants and birds and turtles and things and raised the butterflies in there.

I mentioned I figured it wasn't a Monarch but wasn't sure what it was. The name "swallowtail" stuck in my mind, but I wasn't sure from where. The butcher told me that it was what the butterfly was and you could tell by the tail end of the wings.

I have a few pictures from around the web of swallowtails. You can click on the thumbnails to get to the sites that host the pictures. (image to right - image from wwwJosephGregoire.ca taken at Deer Lake, Burnaby, BC)

I really wish I had had a decent camera at hand, but then the chances of taking the pictures here were fleeting. Even had I the camera in my pocket - except for the incident at the meat market - I likely would not have been able to catch an image of the swallowtails. I think better luck actually knowing when they would be about and being about where they likely would be about.

It did make for an interesting addition to a relatively peaceful June 30th.

Later!
~ Darrell

73.

If You Go Into The Woods Today - Urban Jungle

Urban Jungle - or Forest Anyway

Yesterday morning I was almost in for a bit of a surprise! I think I have mentioned that hear from the Old Gnomestead in Port Moody Centre I can see Bald Eagles soaring while I am sitting in the comfort of my living room or bedroom-office. I can also see the occasional coyote on a quiet very early morning and can walk to the inlet to see harbour seals swimming or sunning themselves on log booms. If I can see eagles and coyotes seen from here in my suite in this three story apartment building I needn't mention the squirrels, raccoons, seagulls, pigeons, crows, and occasional raven need I?

However yesterday morning I just missed seeing another visitor to our neighbourhood! A juvenile black bear. At least I am told it was probably a juvenile by my apartment mate who sometimes has odd views on how big or small things are that she sees. Definitely a black bear however as this morning they were putting up signs to let people know that bears were prowling the neighbourhood and reinforcing the bylaws already in place which prohibit garbage being brought to the curb on garbage day before 7am and encouraging wise composting practices which would not attract bears into your yard.

I'd think it prudent to keep dogs and cats named Hotdog, Burger, Peanuts, Popcorn, Crackerjack, Wiener, and Picnic indoors and safe from these refugee Yogis and Booboo bears who might be on the lookout for pet takeout. I guess it would be wise to be wary even with the occasional coyotes and racoon who sneak about.

Now if you don't know it, I do not live in some small logging or mining town in the deep woods. Nor do I live in a community like Beautiful Banff, Alberta nestled in Banff National Park with its mountains, forests, hostsprings and so forth and wildlife galore that perhaps are no longer to be found much in the Continental US lower 48. (They were the only 48 when I was born, but that is another story.) Port Moody is a part of Metro Vancouver which has a combined population which I believe is over 2 million and if not is nearly 2 million. It could be between 2 and 3 million depending how far up the Fraser Valley you go. But even between 1 and 2 million it is a fairly large metropolitan area. Metro Vancouver is Canada's 3rd largest city for that matter.

We do live on the edge of wilderness. I guess in a sense on the edge of two wildernesses if you consider the ocean a great wilderness on it's own. There is virgin forest north of the city with wild tracts running south towards Seattle as well. There is also open farmland opening to the east and beyond that mountain and wild forest. I have heard there is a pack of wolves who have moved in to areas at the far end of one of the lakes that nearly come into contact with Metro Vancouver - yes wolves, not coyotes or wild dogs, but wolves. I believe they are timber wolves or grey wolves. They haven't been seen in the area for quite a while and it isn't a matter of them being "reintroduced" from elsewhere through the action of preservationists. Probably just beyond one of the mountains I see out my window there might be grizzly bears and of course deer, elk, moose, fox, bobcat, mountain lion and you name it... If they exist, there are likely sasquatch-Bigfoot out there too for the area is know to have had sightings.

I'll have to keep my eyes open over the coming days. The fellow putting up the sign about the bears said the the bears are probably living in the wilderness area in the slopes above our neighbourhood. If I can cox some more pictures out of my ancient digital camera - so ancient it only talks via serial cable and I don't think I can get it to talk to my MacBook - I'll see if I can catch a picture of the black bear - from the safety of my balcony of course.

It won't be a picture of a grizzly bear of course, but I am content with it just being a black bear walking down my lane.

Later!
~ Darrell

64.