Anise Swallowtail

There was an anise swallowtail in my yard today, sunning and nectaring. I have a big red coat on the line drying, and it was faked out over and over again, thinking that it was a flower. It flew over, checked it out, and departed over and over in the twenty minutes that I was watching. I guess it looks like a flower from far away, but not close up.

My butterfly walks started at the UC Botanical Garden on Tuesday. I had a crowd of people. So many things were in bloom, I talked about the flowers more than the butterflies. We did see a ringlet. And the pipevine swallowtails put on a show for us. We found no eggs or caterpillars, though.

Not an Earwig Insect Encounter

I know that is a really lousy pic. You can blame my camera. Anyway, it is a moth. I had to go to the doctor to get it removed from my ear. Who gets a moth in their ear anyway?

So, I think it was Monday night, I was falling asleep, when this flutter noise IN MY EAR woke me up. I tried to shake it out. It fluttered more. Then stopped. I shined a light in their. It fluttered more, then stopped.

Other people said that wax rolling around in our year sometimes seems fluttery. I really thought that it was not wax.

I don't know why it wanted to fly out. It had six legs. Couldn't it just walk out? Maybe there was not enough room to turn around and it couldn't back out... Maybe moths never use their legs, like dragonflies; I have never seen a dragonfly walk anyplace. They just use their legs for perching or catching insects. Meanwhile, it fluttered less and less, then finally quit.

Why did I have to make an appointment with the doctor and wait two days to figure out what it was? Luckily, the doctor had come across this problem before and didn't think I was crazy. I really wanted to know what it was. And now I know.