More New Life at The Ranch

A few weeks back, caterpillars seemed to be all over The Ranch. Nature goes through cycles here on The Ranch with different insects cycling through the summer from mosquitoes to grasshopper with everything in between. Butterflies do the same with the Morning Cloak being common here as it is over most of North America. A few weeks back when I opened the garage door I found two chrysalis attached to the inside rib of the garage door. I didn’t give them much chance of surviving but let them be. I kept checking them but saw no real change. That included this morning when I went to work in the woodshop. Then at noon when I went to the mailbox, lo and behold there was a butterfly just emerged.

Well, emerging from your chrysalis into a garage wouldn’t do so I moved it to safe place outside. I got Sharon and we stood there and watched it. That’s when I said, “gee, maybe I should photograph it?” Heck, I’m so well known for my macro work. Not! It was fun trying to get the shot as the butterfly slowly pumped open its wings and antenna as it swung in the slight breeze. It’s then I remembered why I’m not a macro photographer, things move. As it did though, those brand new scales on its wings glowed in the light and I got hooked. 878 photos later, I thought I’d better get back to work. But want a cool moment. I checked on it a couple of hours later to find it had flown off. It was very cool and rewarding to see more new life at The Ranch!