It's that time of year again

Yep, it's that time of year when I go back to my childhood and start playing like I'm a kid again. ;) Actually, it's monarch season, and it seems to be becoming something adults do now, too, to try and rescue the dwindling monarch population. I just do it for fun, and if it helps, then it's even better.

Actually, there seem to be plenty of monarchs around here this year, at least compared to a few years where I found NO caterpillars. Maybe because it's been such an awesome summer weather-wise, particularly because of the blessed lack of our normally ever-present wind! Courtney and I have found quite a few monarch caterpillars, and even a number of eggs. The eggs are very tiny, and you have to turn over the milkweed leaves, because they're always on the bottom. Here's what one looks like next to Courtney's fingernail, thanks to my Easy Macro lens:

Below is what one looked like just before it hatched (photo fancied up via an iPad app). The dark spot at the top of the egg is the caterpillar's head.

This next pic is of a newly hatched caterpillar. It's about 1/16" long. It's there on the left, but hardly visible just above the leaf tip on the bigger leaf. On the right is a macro shot next to the pin for comparison.

Below is a 2-day-old caterpillar. It's doubled in size to 1/8" and gotten its stripes!

Fast-forward through the growing stages and into the chrysalis. They always had looked to me like they had glittery bits decorating them, but a macro shot shows that it's just how the light reflects off the colored areas. No glitter.

Another macro shot shows the almost-artistic way the caterpillar makes its web to attach itself to the lid of a jar to hang the chrysalis from. I love it!

Here's a different chrysalis (plus a couple of growing caterpillars) the morning of hatch day:

That was yesterday. It hatched late in the morning, and by late afternoon was ready to be released. It was kind enough to let me have a great photo shoot before it took off for its first flight. It's a girl! :)

Yes, I'm still loving that Easy Macro lens. Have you ever seen a monarch up this close before?!

Okay, quit playing, Grandma G, and get back to sewing. Good progress has been made, but it's not finished yet. Maybe today. I hope!

Catching with Courtney

Can you tell what Courtney and I did on Wednesday?

If you guessed caught butterflies, you're right. Well, sort of. We caught a couple of moths for her new collection. We didn't see very many butterflies, and the ones we did see were very elusive. :)

In the area where Courtney's standing above, we were after this monarch.

It was enjoying the nectar from some purple clover.

After I'd taken a few photos (what's a butterfly hunt without photos, right?) and looked closely at them, I noticed this poor thing was quite damaged. Look at her wing!

We decided to let her go and hoped for a better specimen for the collection. We also hoped she would lay an egg on the milkweed plants that were near so we'd have a caterpillar soon.

We did see one other monarch but couldn't get close to that one. We also found what we hope is a monarch egg on a milkweed leaf. Time will tell....

One more monarch

I've helped add one more monarch to the almost-endangered species! One of my chrysalises hatched early Friday morning. I didn't see it happen, but I've seen enough of them hatch to not feel bad about missing this one. It's really very cool, though, so watch one if you ever get the chance (although you have to be right there ready, because it happens very fast).

It was not the greatest day weather-wise to be a new butterfly. It was very windy and somewhat foggy in the morning, but at least it got up to about 80° in the afternoon. I took my butterfly outside on the north side of the house (wind was from the south) and set it free. It was not eager to let go.

I put it on my impatiens plants, and later in the day it was gone.

Okay, you've probably had your fill of monarch photos. ;) That'll be all for this year, even though I have two more to hatch yet. They'll look the same. Isn't it amazing, though, that every monarch has identical markings? Every dot and every line, the same. A friend happened to send me photos of one the same day I took these. Our butterflies matched perfectly! :)

No more monarch photos, but I do have something cute and new to show you tomorrow. It might not look new, but it is! ;) Be sure to come back and see!

More monarchs!

We had migrating monarchs last week. Not as many as we used to get many years ago, but certainly more than I've seen in the last 5 years or so. I'm not good at guessing numbers, but I'd say there were maybe 50 of them... or maybe closer to 100... which is a pretty small flock, but at least they were here! I found them in the morning, resting on the north side of the trees along our driveway. There was a pretty strong south wind all day, so the butterflies just stayed there all day, not attempting to fly against that wind.

Of course the wind made it harder to get good photos, too, but I think I did okay. It was hard to choose from the many I took, so this post may be "photo overload". :) I hope you enjoy them as much as I did!

They sat most of the time with their wings together.....

..... but if I moved much, some of them fluttered around and came back. Compare the above photo with the next:

I like the "flat" one below:

So, so pretty!!

They stayed there overnight. The next morning it was very foggy, and when I checked on the butterflies, I noticed that they were all covered with heavy mist, the poor things. Click on the pic below to see it bigger... and note the water droplets on its antennae!

They were still able to fly, and flapping their wings shook the moisture off. They left later that morning.

The chrysalises that my caterpillars made are still hanging. They should be hatching soon. They'd better hurry up if they want to make it south for the winter. The first chrysalis is kind of black and icky-looking, like something's wrong with it, and the last caterpillar didn't finish shedding its skin and died, but there are three that still look good. I'll let you know if/when they hatch!

Endangered?

I read an article a few days ago that said that the monarch butterfly population has dropped 90% in the last 20 years! No wonder we hardly see any of them anymore. We used to see them come through in huge bunches every fall, and they would rest in the trees and look so beautiful. Here's a not-very-clear photo I took in September of 2003:

Since then the numbers have dwindled each year, and now it's almost rare to see a monarch flying around at all. I did see one a few days ago, and I followed it around with the camera, trying to get a good photo of it. It was not very cooperative, though, and I only got this one shot with its wings spread, and it was way up in a tree.

It kept flying from place to place. I kept following and snapping away.

That shot was kinda cool, but let's try it again with a little better light setting.

Maybe even zoom in a little closer.

Time for a different tree.

And yet another tree.

And another.

It finally flew too far for me to continue following.

I try to do my part every year to help the monarch population along (mainly because I think it's fun and interesting). I capture the caterpillars that I find on milkweed plants and keep them until they've eventually become butterflies, then I set them free.

Here's a little cage, made by Courtney's daddy's uncle many years ago. I use it to contain the caterpillars.

Last year Courtney and I searched a lot, but we didn't find a single caterpillar. This year we had better luck, and we found 5 in one day! Here they are, and as you can see, 2 of them have made their chrysalis(es?) already. It will be about 10 days before the first ones hatch.

I think they actually have a better survival rate in captivity like this than in the open. I have rarely ever seen a chrysalis on a milkweed plant. So I hope my little efforts are helping. Because of the terrible decline in population, "environmental groups have petitioned the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to list the monarch butterfly as a threatened species."

I happened to see a couple more monarchs on Wednesday morning. I think this one was telling me that I needed to pick this muskmelon. :) (We've been eating them during the last week, and they are delicious!)

It's a good thing I had the zoom lens on the camera so I could get this shot from a distance. As soon as I moved closer, it took off. Butterflies must have amazing eyesight!

First day of school!

Yesterday was Courtney's first day of FIRST GRADE! And she came to my house afterwards, so I got to hear all about it. It sounded like it was a great day, and she was excited to go back today. She seemed very impressed with something called "monkey moola". 

The bus driver surprised me and didn't pull into the driveway like I thought he was going to, so I wasn't close enough or focused in for a good photo, but here she comes!

Later on, I got a better shot, after she'd been here awhile and had changed into her flip-flops, because it was pretty warm out. I'm still loving the hairdo!

On the way out to meet her bus, I took some pics, since I had the camera along. This was on my sedum bush in the wildflower bed:

Nope, it's not a monarch butterfly. It's a viceroy! I thought it seemed a bit small for a monarch, and after seeing the pics in the computer, I decided it didn't look quite right, so I did a search for a look-alike, and I very quickly found it to be the viceroy. (Dale would've known that right away, I bet!)

Here is a blog post I came across comparing the monarch and the viceroy, and then comparing them to people. :)

Also on the sedum was this big, somewhat wicked-looking bug. Anyone know what it is? Wasp? Hornet?

My peppers are turning red. Just thought you'd want to know that. Ha.

Speaking of monarchs, though, Courtney and I have been watching for the caterpillars. Monarch butterflies seem to be a rare thing this year. I've hardly seen any. However, today Courtney and I did see one near some milkweed plants, so we went searching. I found two of these:

Did you notice the tiny white thing? Below is a closer look. I'm pretty sure it's a monarch egg.

Courtney took one home, and I kept one here. They take about 4 days to hatch, so we'll know soon if that's really what they are.