Though not from the patch of Milkweed (the dark plant with lime green seed pods in the background) this Monarch flew in and spent the better half of the day on the Aster novae-angliae. This is a plant I'm loving more and more every day. I hope it becomes invasive and grows everywhere in the yard!
Usually when eating the wings are folded straight up. Every so often though they flex their wings outward as if to remind the birds they're poisonous. "Remember that awful orange insect you tried eating the other day that gave you vomit... yah what then?"
Taking pictures of Monarchs isn't exactly hard but if you move to fast or get to close they just take off and fly around the yard. Though they usually land on the same plant (or type of plant) they don't exactly land on the same spot. Meaning you have to start all over to get a good close up.
Off he goes. Actually he stuck around in the yard another three hours the lighting wasn't good enough for photography. The flash doesn't work with the macro feature on my camera for some reason.
The spots on the back rear wings indicate that this is a male. Though I don't see them in most of my photos. This makes me wonder if I didn't have two Monarchs passing by as I took a break. If so it kind of ruins the story told in this post but who can complain about more Monarchs?