Special Deliveries

Yesterday and today were special days because some things I had ordered last week finally arrived.

Last evening while I was making supper the doorbell rang. Of course, the dogs always go ballistic. By the time the Spousal Unit pushed the hounds out of the way and got to the door to answer, he saw the FedEx guy running back to his truck. I imagine it must be a FedEx or UPS guy's worst nightmare to ring a doorbell and hear multiple dogs barking up a storm.

Anyway, there was a small cardboard box setting by the front step. "Is it my order from Bird Watcher's Digest?" I asked excitedly. My spousal unit confirmed that it was. I knew what was in there, but waited until after supper before opening it.

I have been wanting this Kaufman insect guide ever since it first came out earlier this spring and after reading everyone else's reviews of this book recently, I decided to go to the BWD website and just order it already. Well, wouldn't you know while I was there I found out there was free shipping on orders over $50. Such a deal, so to make it worthwhile, I also ordered the Kaufman butterfly guide, and a really nice little Pajaro field bag to carry around all the books and other assorted birding paraphernalia on my bird hikes. (Another bonus: both books included the autographed Kenn Kaufman bookplate--that's the little white card between the 2 books.)

Today in the mail my monarch butterfly tagging kit arrived. Twenty-five little number-coded dots to apply to monarch wings and the data sheet to record how many butterflies I tag with which number.

I will have two more monarch butterflies emerging in the ranch tomorrow morning, so they will be tagged as JLA 050 and JLA 051.

I checked on the internet this morning and found out that Rochester, Minnesota is at 43.55 latitude. The chart indicated that the peak monarch migration for my latitude occurs approximately the first 2 weeks in September....can it be? only 2 weeks away?