Anise Swallotail

Andy released an Anise Swallowtail at my house today. He also released several Gulf Fritillaries, which would be expected. The Gulf Frits are tropical and fly all year long. But the Swallowtails? They usually overwinter as pupae and emerge in the the spring. So it seems rather odd that this one is out in December. I am guess that it will find no one to mate with and it will never be able to reproduce. So beautiful, a perfect specimen, but a failure of nature none-the-less.

Another Presentation

Yesterday, Andy and I gave a presentation to the docents at Coyote Hills Regional Park. It was a last minute thing, because the scheduled presenter bowed out. We were proud about how many live specimens we found at the last minute in the middle of December. That is the "editorial we." I contributed this one lone Gulf Fritillary caterpillar pictured below. Andy found a West Coast Lady egg, two Monarch eggs, and several more Gulf Fritillary caterpillars. He also collected flowers from passion vines, plantain, pearly everlasting. In December! People really appreciated the Monarch lifecycle film, too.  And when I told Bill about how well the film was received (for the hundredth time!) he agreed to complete the lifecycle films and market them. Yay!!!! Can't wait!