Fueling up!

I took a little walk around Sanctuary Marsh in North Chagrin Metropark today and saw very few animals. Several chipmunks scampered across the path in front of me and a little family of ducks floated on the pond and got into a squawking disagreement accompanied by a fluttering of wings. None of this was a candidate for my blip, but then I found something that was. On the edge of the pond, a bush with blue flowers had attracted an amazing number of monarch butterflies. A man sitting on a nearby bench commented, "They're fueling up! Getting ready for their long migration." As he watched, I took forty or more pictures of them flitting around in the afternoon sunlight. It was a beautiful sight. I had my blip and a title for it too. The observer's parting comment was, "If you were shooting film, you wouldn't be snapping that many pictures," and I had to agree. If you like monarchs and fall scenery, I posted a few more pictures from today here.