I've put in a few volunteer hours lately at the Kalamazoo Nature Center, chasing and attempting to identify various insects. Turns out the grounds are lousy with giant swallowtails (Papilio cresphontes), a butterfly species I haven't seen in Michigan since the summer of 1992. Usually, the best place at this latitude to see P. cresphontes is at Point Pelee, Ontario, and the even better places to see them are at considerably lower latitudes.

The only other thing I have to say is that there's something about the end of the summer that can make an otherwise sane and reasonably mature woman do strange things, like paint her toenails to match her bicycle. Of course, since the mature woman in question is waiting for final judgment on a submitted journal article, as well as being in the middle of various career feelers linked by a common theme of severely delayed gratification, it's fortunate that no even stranger impulses have surfaced. Except, of course, for the impulse to chase butterflies. Glad to see the P. cresphontes back.