I am so fortunate to have a wonderful neighbor who is a nature buff just like me. Pam is also a butterfly tagger for the the Monarch Watch organization based at Kansas University. She was kind enough to invite me along for tagging when she visited an area we all frequent called Bluegrass Wildlife Preserve. Its the time of year when the Monarchs are gearing up for their migration. The thistle plants (cirsium altissimum) or more commonly, "tall thistle" are blooming, and are a magnet for the Monarchs. Heres our adventure in pix:


Tall thistle (Cirsium altissimum)

And more thistle.....

It is quite a beautiful plant....

Seems its liked by others too.....

Heres Pam stalking an elusive Monarch.....

Ah, success....now to retrieve it from the net....gently..

Heres a beautiful unknown (at least unknown to me) butterfly...

A beautiful little birds nest....sort of looks like it might be a Goldfinch nest...the conical shape is one I have seen used by Goldfinches before....

I always call these "roadside daisies".... an improper I.D., but they are lovely......

More of the daisies....

The bees certainly loved the thistle.....

And even more of the thistle......

An old bridge on a road that is now closed to vehicles....we walked across, and I snapped off some quick shots....lovely area...

A Blue Heron....he was fishing until I surprised him.....

Another daisy (they were everywhere and full of blossoms)

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The beautiful, huge lily pads....

The DNR plants sunflower, milo and other seed grasses for the wildlife. Heres a flock of Red-winged Blackbirds chowing down in a field of sunflowers that have been "plowed down" for the ground eaters to enjoy.......

More of the Red-wings.....

The Red-wings in flight from the rushes back to the sunflowers....they seemed to go in waves....

These sunflowers were left standing for the birds that enjoy eating right from the stalks rather than the ground.........

They seem to go on for miles and miles....

Seems someone is really enjoying the sunflowers....

Still eating.........

Heres Pam removing the tag from a sheet of "stickers" to be placed on the butterfly in her hand........

A close-up of the butterfly tag.....

And another.....showing all the information about where this particular butterfly was tagged.....

Heres Pam logging all the information about this particular butterfly onto a chart. The information includes the date of tagging, gender of the butterfly and other information relative to the research....

Thanks for looking in......it was such a treat for me to go along with this wonderful lady. She is so gentle with these beautiful butterflies. I have to admit I was thrilled that she allowed me to catch my first butterfly. I was absolutely terrified that I would in some way harm it....but, I didn't. Pam assured me that they are quite a bit stronger than some people actually think. I do know that as I held one in my hands for release after tagging, I felt its strength as it struggled to escape and it was amazing. I loved this adventure and hope to go again sometime....thanks again for looking in everyone...

~Kathy~