A Visiting Monarch

Not a good photo, but I need to prove a monarch was actually here. A few minutes before I was trying to get a sharp shot of swan plant flowers in front of the house, thinking the bushes will probably never see a monarch butterfly. It was too windy and I gave up and went around the back. There was a monarch butterfly! It was battling the gusty wind, making it impossible for me to get the sort of shot I hoped for. I don’t think it noticed the swan plants.

Today was special in other ways. Heard, but not seen, was a chorus cicada singing and clapping in the pinoak tree. Chorus cicadas are as rare as monarch butterflies here. But even rarer was the brown tree frog saying his piece in the big clump of fern near the back door. It’s quite damp there, even with the drought, because I have pots of lettuces growing in the shade of the fern, which I water regularly. The frog is probably less than 50mm long, and well camouflaged so I didn’t try to find it.