Question Mark Butterfly and the Hawk Foot

Two days ago while tidying up the studio, I found the body of the Question Mark Butterfly. It was the one I had written about in March, the one that had showed up in the studio flying about thinking spring was blossoming and mating was in the air. At the time I thought he would sit it out in the studio, tolerate a little chill and then re-emerge full of vinegar in April, to go look for friends. No such luck. He was found motionless, stiff with death, lying on the floor not far where I had seen him trying to get out the window. His wings were spread as if mounted in a collection box and his legs withdrawn. I suppose he froze or possibly starved, even though I thought he might be able to have just sat it out in a comatose condition, rather in an insect hibernation. Sadly, he never got his day in the garden, but only had a brief flutter in the studio. At the time I had an option to let him outside which is where he wanted to go but I held back not wanting him to have to sit out a number of cold nights. Now I wish I would have given him liberty even if it was just for the one afternoon. The sun was warm, the sap was flowing and it probably would have been a lonely flight, but still it would have been in the wilds, his land. In the process of looking for his body so I might get an additional photo for the blog, I found this Hawk foot I had collected some years ago from a deceased bird I found next to the highway in Colorado. Like many Hawks, particularly young ones, that go after some hapless animal wondering the roads, he had a speeding auto end his brief days as a raptor of the heavens. I had not taken part in his demise and in a gesture of appreciation, I harvested the single foot as a souvenir. I have always like it because it is an interesting statement of the effectiveness of natures evolution. Always something to learn from dead things. I guess, I would have preferred both of them alive.