Tuesday, August 07, 2007

The GIANT Butterfly

What do a butterfly and a hummingbird have in common?

Evidently from the hummingbird's point of view -- NOTHING!

The other day I was looking out my window watching the hummingbird bump around the joe pie weed flower heads. They are also loved by the Monarch butterflies and sure enough one soon came along. For awhile the hummer didn't seem to notice, but then all of a sudden it seemed to be startled. It flew backwards as if to get away from the pretty butterfly. The butterfly seemed oblivious to all this and continued to flit around. That seemed to scar the bird more. When you think about it, the hummingbird is smaller than a Monarch. It cracked me up because Hummers can be so territorial, fiercely territorial. And it was afraid of a little butterfly.

So I have two questions.

For the naturalists, "Do Monarch butterflies scare hummingbirds or was I reading something into the situation?

For the networkers, "Does some innocuous thing scare you away from doing what you need to do? Just like the hummingbird?

2 comments:

Sandy of Sandy's Stuff for Women said...

Yes, I am intimidated by people who take charge of every setting they're in by talking too much - you know the ones - they have an answer for every person and every thing that's said. And the comments aren't always correct or appropriate.

When these same people hold a position of "power" (whatever that means), I find myself, just like the others around me, just letting them do their thing.

Maybe it's because of a saying my mom always had, "Give people enough rope and they'll hang themselves."

Michelle R. Donovan said...

I used to be intimidated by networking, but not any longer. However, I still don't quite care for the "hummingbird networker" if you know what I mean. The person who flits from one person to another just to get a bunch of cards out that day!

As for the butterfly vs the hummer ... without knowing for sure, maybe it was an imature hummer who never saw quite a large butterfly?!

One more thing ... have you ever seen a "hummingbird moth"? It's about the size of a large bumble bee that's mostly orange & brown with really big wings and it flies just like a hummer!! It's the coolest thing ... look closely at your flowering wildflowers and I bet you'll see one soon.