Magnificent Monarch

For the past several weeks, I have been witnessing the annual Monarch Migration one butterfly at a time.

 

On my daily walks, I would observe a beautiful Monarch flying past me.  Five minutes later, another solitary Monarch would fly over.  Another five minutes, another.  This occurrence would be repeated regularly day after day.

 

These butterflies would not land.  They would just continue fluttering by until…

 

One day, one of these magnificent Lepidoptera finally lighted upon a sporadic thistle plant and I was lucky enough to be able to observe this colorful creature for several minutes…almost an eternity as watching butterflies goes.

 

 notice the black spot on the hindwing - this is a scent gland only found on the male Monarchs

 

This particular butterfly did not seem to be in as much a hurry as all the others proceeding.
 

 

I was thankful that this Monarch had a bit of sense to ‘smell the roses’, Canadian thistle in this case.

 

And, I had that same sense, too!