Imperial Moth saved from hungry bird!

Yesterday as I was in my car at the drive through window of the bank, I noticed a bird in the parking lot seemingly playing with something big and yellow. This caught my attention as I was waiting for my transaction. The bird would pick up the object in its mouth and try to fly away and then drop it on the pavement. This happened several times. Whatever the bird was trying to catch would flop around on the asphalt until the next assault by the bird. It finally picked it up again and flew away about 100 feet and again dropped it. By this time, I was finished at the bank and I drove over to where the bird was and got out of the car. The bird hopped away, but was still watchful. I discovered the yellow object was actually an Imperial Moth, which was still alive, but just barely. I put it in my car and drove it home. I thought if it didn't live, I would use it in my butterfly programs to show my audiences what one looked like. I was in a hurry, so I put it into a glassine envelope and then into a sealed container in the refrigerator. Tonight I took it out and placed it outside close to the house. I'll see in the morning if it's still there or if it flew away.

Busy butterfly season!

This has been the busiest butterfly season I've had. I have raised more butterflies and sold more butterflies than ever before. More people are becoming aware of butterfly releases and since there are so few people who are butterfly farmers, sometimes there are not enough butterflies to go around. An article appeared in today's Washington Post magazine about Social Butterflies: www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/07/01/AR2008070101828.html?nav=hcmodule
Check it out!