backyard drama! Catbird VS SPST

[Emmayct at cs.com]

Well, I love butterflies and I love birding...but today I had an 
interesting scenario play out...

After a morning of yard work I decided to relax in the lawn chair and take 
in the activity in the backyard..Very soon along came a beautiful Spicebush 
Swallowtail, stopping to nectar on a blooming Sage plant. I watched it 
through my binoculars from about 30 feet. Beautiful! Fluttering so precisely in 
the strong wind. Then, right before my eyes, a Catbird swooped in to pick it 
off...like a scene from an  Animal Planet documentary!  But, Happily the 
butterfly escaped and the catbird moved on to picking insects from the leaf 
litter. I have had Catbirds in the past pick off newly released BST..don't they 
know about mimickery?

Maryann

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