Tigers Everywhere

I guess to every dark cloud there is a silver lining.  Spent my morning this morning spending money.  $24.99 to change oil in the truck.  $35 to change oil in the motorcycle (explain how that makes sense!).  $25 for supplies to build a new "saddlebag" for the back of the motorcycle, so I will have a lockable compartment for the trip west.  I was all ready to get started on the box and I could not find the tape measure.  So, the box had to wait, which gave me opportunity to go to Clear Creek Metro Park for butterfly fun.
  I had not been to Clear Creek since June 25, and I thought a new brood of Tiger Swallowtails had emerged.  I was right!  Three miles of hiking yielded a total of 147 Tiger Swallowtails.  Today was a record day as far as total butterflies.  My previous record for most butterflies at a single site had been 161 at The Ridges on July 5.  Today's total of 262 smashed that record.  Although, today's species count fell one short of tying the record of 25 set at Trimble on June 9.  Unfortunately, no new species for the BBY today.
  On the plus side, I did get a picture of Giant Swallowtail, so it can now officially count for the BBY.  I have a pic of Giant Swallowtail on my cell phone taken at my work, but I cannot figure out how to get pictures out of my phone and into the computer.  So, now I have a picture that I can work with.
  BTW, my species total for the year is 67.  If you recall, my original goal for the BBY was 200.  On my trip west I expext to add potentially another 40-50 species.  So, as you can see, my species total will fall woefully short of 200.  As I have progressed through the BBY, I have learned a few things about myself.  Among them, I prefer to experience the unexpected rather than the expected.  I get excited in not knowing what I may find.  I also get extremely disappointed in not finding what I was expecting to find.  I guess in a way, its an altered version of a quote from the movie Dodgeball on my personal facebook page.  "If you have a goal you might not reach it, but if you don't have a goal, you'll never be disappointed."  I guess for me, its more about the thrill of the unexpected rather than the drive to achieve the goal.
  BTW, today I surpassed my individual butterfly count goal of 2000.  Am now up to 2247 individual butterflies.  I have also given up on the goal of having 500 followers on facebook.  The project has not taken off among butterfly nerds like I had thought it would.  However, I am really thankful for the couple handfuls of followers that the project does have.  I am reminded of another quote from another movie.  This one by Zooey Deschanel's character in Yes Man, where, talking about her rock band makes a comment something to the effect (don't have it memorized) of, "I know we'll never make it big, but we have a handful of groupies and its fun, thats why I do it."
  So, today was fun.  And it beat digging holes in the sun all day.
  Finally, my apologies for today's photo quality.  Lots of pics came out blurry for some reason.

Lots of Tiger Swallowtails

Giant Swallowtail

Eastern Comma lurking in the bushes

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