An Ill Wind

 'Tis an ill wind that blows no one good.

It's been an edgy week here in southwest Washington, as our record-breaking dry conditions have finally culminated in raging brush and forest fires throughout the region. My little neck of the woods is not directly threatened at this point, but everyone is walking on proverbial eggshells, knowing the smallest spark could set off a conflagration. 

Over 100 years ago, this area was the scene of a devastating fire that destroyed over 200,000 acres of timber and took 38 lives, the "Yacolt Burn" of 1902 (http://www.historylink.org/File/5196). It was, in fact, the largest recorded forest fire in Washington state's history, and the scars of that destruction are still visible today, and though most of the evidence is mouldering away and grown over, we residents are wary that it could easily happen again.

So far, we've been spared anything more troubling than fine ash sifting down from weirdly yellow skies, an eerie blood-orange sun, and the omnipresent haze and smell of wood smoke, driven by east winds up the Columbia River Gorge and funneling into our valley. 

But yesterday, something unexpected and wonderful happened as a result of this upheaval: I had a garden visitor.

This is the first monarch butterfly I've seen in this part of the country, and I've lived here since the mid-seventies. My husband (the amateur naturalist) saw it first, and came in with some excitement to report what he'd seen. I dashed right out, and sure enough--a monarch, dining daintily among the zinnias, gloriosa daisies, and calendulas. Wonder of wonders!

It's been hanging out here today, as well, and I managed to capture a few photos, though it seems a bit leery of my getting too close. While there's no way of knowing for sure, we can think of no other explanation than that this pretty creature was blown here by the east wind, made more powerful than usual from the intense thermal activity of the fires in the eastern part of the state. 

This photo gives you some idea how dry it is here--that's my lawn in the background--
or what's left of it after three months with virtually no rain.

I was excited about the sighting and made the mistake of sharing the info on a local chat site, eliciting a variety of condescending remarks intended to set me straight on the matter of a monarch's rarity in this region. Apparently my remark struck most of the folks who read it as though it was the babbling of the village idiot. I even received a photo to prove my ignorance:

I was compelled to point out that this, though a beautiful butterfly indeed, was not a monarch but a swallowtail, and that if anyone was seeing monarchs, it was a fluke as we have no milkweed plants here for them to lay their eggs on. There was a noticeable drop in the online sniggering after that.

Today, my husband did some research and found an intriguing article about a Portland, Oregon woman who planted milkweed plants in the hopes of luring monarchs to the area. Maybe I got one of her hatchlings!

http://www.oregonlive.com/environment/index.ssf/2015/06/monarchs_reappear_in_portland.html

www.etsy.com/listing/240079184/1984-smokey-the-bear-40th-birthday-pin

If you're interested in helping monarch butterflies increase in numbers, you can purchase milkweed pods/seeds from this (and other) Etsy sellers:

www.etsy.com/shop/SweetPicnsfromNature
www.etsy.com/listing/463593694/5-milkweed-pods-with-seeds-for-butterfly