August 10th at the Nichol farmhouse (circa 1876?) at Raccoon Creek Sate Park in southwestern Pennsylvania. Park volunteers long ago planted a bed of mint at the farmhouse.

Long awaited, the aroma of the mint flowers certainly drew in our exquisite Monarch butterfly. She calmly moved from flower to flower, enabling me to photograph her at will.

Long ago I learned that folks much preferred images of butterflies with intact wings. So, so many times we spot an exciting find, a species that is rarely encountered . . . and then after slowly stalking up, oh no! Bits and pieces of wing, gone. Ripped by pursuing birds and insects . . . and who knows what?

Monarchs are like the gold of the butterflies. They afford the earnest photographer of butterflies the assurance of beauty of shape, color and whimsy. Danaus plexxipus. The treat on the wing.

So, we once again broadcast out the query of our last post.

Did she fly south from Beaver County, PA to West Virginia or Maryland or Ohio? Then, did she or her progeny cross the Gulf at Alabama, Mississippi or Louisiana?

Jeffrey