I remember commenting to my husband that it would be sad if only one Monarch came by and this one didn't find a mate.
Just now, as I was belatedly putting some birdseed in the feeders, my heart flipped as I saw something I couldn't quite explain. It was a Monarch flying around, but it appeared to have another, seemingly lifeless, Monarch attached and dangling from its body.
As I watched, it headed for our young pine tree and settled on a branch. Then I realized that the seemingly dead one wasn't dead after all and what I was seeing was, to coin a phrase used by another Houston area garden blogger, Dorothy at The Nature of Things, a little backyard porn.
I'll admit, this is something of which I haven't ever pondered the mechanics.
Now I know.
I'll leave it at that :-)
My recently planted native milkweed probably isn't big enough to sustain Monarch cats at the moment, but I do have some healthy tropical milkweed. So she should have enough locations to lay her eggs.
I'll keep a lookout for them and keep you posted :-)
Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.
1 comment:
Anoles do it, butterflies do it, frogs do it, and, heaven knows, birds do it! It's been a very prolific spring around here.
BTW, it's interesting that the two headed for the pine tree. I have observed that in my yard also. My neighbor has big pine trees just across our backyard fence and earlier this spring I saw a mating pair of Monarchs flying across my backyard and landing in one of the pines where they stayed for an extended period. There must be something very attractive about those pines.
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