The afternoon had come and I was outside sitting on the old rocker in a vegetative state meditative state. I had a cool refreshing beverage in hand, as I observed nature all around me.
I had noticed over the last two days that our cat Molly had tried, but failed, to catch a small brown butterfly. She would sneak up on this winged bug, but he would fly away quickly. Then she would jump up in the air several feet trying to get this member of the Lepidoptera family. That is the scientific name for butterflies and moths of which there are said to be over 175,000 species.
This same Lepidoptera would land on the neighbor’s home, then molly would sneak over to their house and jump up on their wall, always missing the bug. I thought she was just an inexperienced hunter, which caused her to miss the butterfly.
Butterfly, who the heck named them butterfly? They do not look anything like butter or a fly, why weren’t they named something else?
Back to my observations. Today Charlie, and experienced hunter, walked over to the edge of the driveway and lay down. All of a sudden he sprang into the air attempting to eradicate this little brown Lepidoptera.
It was the same butterfly that Molly had been attempting to catch. This Lepidoptera was fast and Charlie kept missing. After a couple minutes I noticed something that I found very interesting.
This little butter fly would fly away from Charlie usually going to the end of the drive way. Then the Lepidoptera would return to Charlie’s location. As with any good predator, Charlie would attempt to secure the target, but unsuccessfully I must report.
Here is the interesting part, the butterfly would fly down at Charlie in what seemed to be an effort to get him to attack. This butterfly liked to play and would intentionally buzz the cat to get him to react. I found that interesting and odd!
Different subject, but also a nature event.
As I was enjoying a second cup of coffee on the front veranda here at The Ford Homestead, I observed a single bird fly around several trees as he was making his way across the neighborhood. He went to the left then to the right back to the left and so forth.
Why did he dodge through the trees? I began to watch and most of the birds were flying around the trees rather than over.
It occurred to this highly stimulated brain that the darn birds could have flown over the trees and in a straight line saving time and energy.
Then I thought, why would they need to save time or energy. Also it came to mind that flying around the trees instead of over may offer some protection from the Hawks in the neighborhood.
Well, that is all the nature I can stand for the day.
May nature be kind to you!
Don Ford
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