Butterfly Image of the Day

Isn't she one of the most gorgeous of all? The Eastern Tiger Swallowtail is quite abundant here and there isn't any time of day you can't go outside to watch them. They get started early morning, drinking nectar and playing until sundown. The Butterfly Bush beside the garage in the front yard is more like the butterflies local pub and on really humid days it's a hopping club. You'd think some big name band was in there playing away.

It's not hard to attract these with a few nectar sources, but if you want an abundance of them, you can plant the hosts that the caterpillars will feed off of. Known hosts along the East Coast include Tulip tree, Wild Cherries, and Wafer Ash. There are a lot of Wild Cherry trees in the areas surrounding my house, so I don't have to do anything for these guys. Very low maintenance for looking so good don't you think?

More Beautiful Butterfly Photos

This one just would not sit still for the photo session this morning, but I finally got him. I believe it is a Great Spangled Fritillary (as opposed to Aphrodite Fritillary) after consulting my big book o' butterflies. I could be very wrong, but we're going with Great Spangled. Either way, he looks good perched at the breakfast table.

Sad news: Yesterday I had a 'special' Monarch emerge. You know that cute kid in your neighborhood that didn't ride the bus with everyone else, but the little yellow one instead... Well, poor little thing had wings attached, but they were all wrong. Upside down and curled around where they were attached instead of straight and right side up. :(

He's still just hanging there. I don't have the heart to do what's right, but he's probably starving by now. If I put nectar near him, he'll just hang on in his misery of not being able to fly.

Monarch Photo of the Day

One Monarch emerged early this morning. Six just emerged around 1:30. I thought they'd never show they're little faces. There are still four to go for the day. I'm not sure what the hold up is. Never had them wait so long in the day before.

A Glorious Morning

It's been a beautiful morning here. Nice sunshine. Not too hot, not too cold. The Monarchs are emerging left and right. I took them all outside to enjoy the morning sun and while I was taking photos, another started to break free, so I documented that as well. There are 11 out so far, and 3 more to go. Enjoy!

And then came another:

Newly Emerged Monarch Butterflies & Monarch Caterpillar Photos

I awoke to two newly emerged Monarch Butterflies this morning. It's chilly in the house with the air on, so I put them on the window screen out back to catch the morning sun. In another day or two there will be about a dozen emerging all at once.

There are still quite a few Monarch caterpillars I'm finding in the garden. In the one photo you can see a Monarch moth caterpillar behind the one Monarch cat. They're fuzzy black and gold, funky looking critters. When I first saw them this season, I had no idea what they were.

Below is the photo with the moth caterpillar:

I think this is the best year I've had so far with the success of my Monarch brood. It could be due to the fact that my milkweed has been established and the Monarchs are finding it or it was a good year for Monarchs. Either way, I'm pleased with the number of surviving cats thus far.

The Last of my Black Swallowtails

One black Swallowtail emerged earlier today and I believe these are the last two in my butterfly sanctuary, so I thought I'd better get it documented. Aren't they just beautiful?

seasons change

As this season begins to cool and fall is nipping at our heals, I relish each morning release and hope that next season won't be too far off. There are 47 more chrysalis that will all emerge within the week and that will be it for this Monarch Rescue Retreat. As the weather cools, I don't know how long you can keep releasing them outside until it's too late to fly south. So, I let mother nature do her job and try to keep an eye on the cats outside and kill any other little critters that get near them.

One of these days, I will get around taking pictures and filling out the forms and be a part of this great organization.

Monarch Butterfly Days

The Monarchs are emerging successfully. Each day there are new ones to release. The count so far is 18 released, at least 35-40 to go. I'm sad to say that I did lose count over the weekend and since then, when I find more, I haven't bothered to add them up. There are just too many little critters in there to count now.

Two lost chrysalis so far. One due to human error (yes, me, I'm very sad to say) and one just didn't form his chrysalis correctly. After j-hooking and shedding, the color was wrong, he/she was small and then it did continue to form as far as getting the gold spots and the shape, but still, the color and size just aren't right.

I have to research this fuzzy little bug thing that has started hanging around the milkweed. This will be the first year for them, so I have no idea what they are. Last week, they were all lined up on a couple leaves looking like little soldiers. Now they've begun to spread around and it looks like they're eating the milkweed??? although the milkweed doesn't look like it's disappearing enough to be eaten by other bugs. I should get pics of them and find out exactly what they are.

Sadly, there are just soooo many bugs hanging around all my gardens since the beginning of 2006 season when I tried to go organic. Now that I've gone organic so the butterflies can live, I have to save the caterpillars so other bugs don't kill them. I can't go barefoot anymore... too many bugs... they're EVERYWHERE. All kinds of weird things I've never seen before. There are black, empty caterpillar carcasses hanging all over the fennel and milkweed. What I don't save seems to be dying an untimely death.

AND... I have an overpopulation of praying mantis. I thought they were supposed to be extinct or something. There is just too much critter craziness going on around here. I used to love gardening and planting... now it's just one battle after another. From the veggies, to the caterpillars, the bushes and trees... ugh... must be getting to the end of summer!

Brood Status

The Monarchs are abundant this time of year around this area (South-central PA), and my milkweed supply is dwindling. There is enough, but I'll have to make sure I get the seed pods and scatter those through the field at the right time this fall. Milkweed is normally so invasive, but I seem to have had a mole issue for the last two years and I just cannot control those little buggers... they even ate a whole section of lavender. I didn't think anything else ate the Milkweed, but apparently, moles do, and if they do, they don't seem to be dying untimely deaths from doing so. There are now 7 barn cats hanging around here, so next Spring there should be far less devastation. We shall see.

In about a week, I should have a lot of great photos to show off. It won't be long before the mass emergence where there will be about a dozen each day.

Blog Makeover

Well, the blog is looking a little more like the site. I have to keep playing with the code on each little thing to see if that is what/where the changes are needed. It takes so long for Blogger to post and publish the little changes that I think it's time for a break. When I'm feeling up to it, I'll work on getting the width, header, and borders looking more like the site as well.

I did say I'd never worry or do the techy stuff again if I returned to the web and blogging... and guess what... here I am! Without the makeover though, I have this white bland blog that is boring and has nothing interesting to look at. I'm too much of a graphics designer at heart... pre-made will just never work for me I guess.

Busy day for the Monarchs

They're j-hooking left and right. One of the pupa is being eaten by another caterpillar... or so it looks. The top looks like it's dried up, but only pupated today. Either it went bad on its own or there is cannibalism going on in there. Anyone ever have any experiences with that before? Very strange stuff I tell ya.

My Current Brood

Right now, there are 9 Black Swallowtail and one Monarch chrysalid. There are 9 more Black Swallowtail caterpillars, that will all be ready to pupate within the week and there are at least 30 Monarch caterpillars. These are all in different stages, anywhere from their 2nd instar to their last.

What does this all mean? That I've collected a good number to have quite a few emerging all in and around the same time. I'm hoping to have a dozen Monarchs one morning when I wake up like I did last year.

The New Butterfly Blog

I have been wanting to do this online for quite a few years. Share my experiences with the butterflies I've attracted each year, how many I've raised, etc. IRL I've kept a garden-style diary where the butterfly entries would appear from time to time, but mostly my friends' ears would be bent. Well, since I know for a fact they are not as interested as other people might be with my butterfly obsession, I thought it was finally time to get this going.

I will be attempting links and making this blog look like the rest of my site (http://www.thebutterflyfarmer.com) as the day wears on.