I was fixing breakfast late this morn and glanced outside. I saw this this little drama going on out there. We always called these wasps bee wolves, but in googling that it appears to be the wrong wasp for that name. Tomorrow I will try looking in my National Audubon insect book and see if I can come up with anything.
Anyway, it would try to fly with it and could almost take off, but not quite make it. Then it would crawl around and eventually try to take it through the cracks in the porch but it was too big to fit through that. It eventually got tired of trying and left it laying there, to be enjoyed by the cats later. Or at least Mama Cat...she batted it around for a while and then left it laying.
We made a quick run through the strip pits this evening and it was strange. Usually, the red-winged blackbirds are just everywhere you look. I don't think we saw a single one for the first mile or mile and a half. But there were chimney sweep/swallow type birds everywhere and they had not been there before. And little white butterflies were abundant, but this is the only monarch I seen. I took several pictures of it, with this being one of my favorites.
I am heading for bed...Lorelei will be here in the morning. Yeah! I can't wait to see her smile!