Monarch Butterfly Birthday

In my last post I told you about my Monarch nursery I have going on the back patio.

Well, the last two days have been most exciting!  I went out to check on the cage yesterday morning and what should I see?

TWO of the chrysalides had marched (eclosed) overnight!

I was thrilled to see they were both healthy-looking females.  There were no signs of OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha) infection, such as malformed wings, that I have seen in the past.

I opened the flap and, with a little help from me and a ride on my hand for one of them, they exited the cage and rested on the mesh for a while before heading off to the zinnia and milkweed in the island bed.

From what I saw yesterday, there were four more chrysalides and one more caterpillar on the milkweed.    At that time, it didn't appear that any of the chrysalides had turned color, but when I went out to look this morning, a beautiful male had hatched.

Unfortunately, I didn't get a photo of him.  It was so humid this morning my camera lens kept steaming up!

I've been absolutely thrilled with this experience, and we still have three more to go (plus the caterpillar).

I'm going to keep searching the milkweed in the island bed for signs of eggs or caterpillars that can be moved to the cage.

But first, once these have all hatched I need to clean out the cage -- who knew caterpillars could POO so much?!
              Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

Monarch Nursery

I know it's been a long time since I posted anything, but this time I do actually have an excuse! At the middle of July I went in to St. Luke's Hospital in the Texas Medical Center to have a pituitary tumor removed.  Then I spent a week in the hospital (even spent my 60th birthday in hospital, can you believe!!!) and since then have been recovering at home.

I literally spent three weeks in bed but have started to get up and about recently.  I was getting headaches at first but they seem to have resolved now, thank goodness! I'm just asking it easy and not overdoing things.

So while I was in hospital, the garden was more or less left to its own resources.  The weeds, of course, grew rampant.  The milkweed got covered in aphids and other crud.

During my recovery I've been spending time sitting out on the patio and one day I saw this young lady busy at work, laying eggs on the cruddy milkweed.

Then, it happened that an ad popped up on Facebook, for the Monarch Butterfly Kit to raise Monarchs. So I went ahead and ordered it.

I think they are really designed so you can raise Monarch indoors, but we don't really have anywhere that the cats wouldn't get to it, so I opted to put mine in the back corner of the patio.

I put a couple of bricks on the bottom, to stop it getting blown around by the wind. Then I went around collecting some milkweed cuttings that had caterpillars on, and placing them in the little picks filled with water to keep them fresh-(ish). I also took some other cuttings and cleaned them up, hosed off the aphids etc., and put them in there as well.

Within a day, one of the caterpillars had already departed it's milkweed and was climbing to the top of the cage! Then I saw two more heading that way as well!

This morning I was thrilled to see three chrysalises (chrysalides)!!

Today I plan to see if I can purchase some fresh milkweed from one of our local stores, Plants for All Seasons or The Arbor Gate, if they have any.  That way I can rescue some other caterpillars, and even some eggs, from the ratty milkweed in the island beds.

Wish me luck!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

The Monarchs are Back!

Earlier this year I read disheartening reports about the numbers of Monarch butterflies being dramatically down in their wintering grounds in Mexico. Did it signal the beginning of the end for the Monarch?

So I had been getting a little depressed that, after five years of seeing lots of Monarchs and caterpillars here in our garden, and being certified as a Monarch Waystation, so far this year I had seen... nothing.

Well that was until this week.  I was pulling nutsedge out of the new island bed and happened to notice two very healthy caterpillers on the Tropical Milkweed that I grew from seed.

So apparently we had been visited by at least one female Monarch - I had just missed her.  Inspecting the rest of the plants in the garden, I was pleased to find a few more caterpillars, contentedly munching.

This one decided to move to pastures green.  I thought he was moving to a neighboring plant, but when I looked the next day I couldn't find him.

When I got home from work, my husband showed me what he had found on the patio...

... look closer...

I'm not sure of course, but I like to think that this is the one I took a photo of, heading across the mulch of our island bed in a determined way.  Eric said when he first saw it, it was still a caterpillar, attaching itself to the chair and beginning to curl up.  When he looked later, it had fully pupated. Isn't nature amazing?

We also have milkweed in the front garden.  It's tucked in behind the shrubs, which is good because it's looking very ragged already.  I haven't seen caterpillars on it, but there must have been at least one, because I spotted this chrysalis on the eave of the house.

And then, as Eric and I were out in the garden on Friday evening, pulling weeds, harvesting cucumbers etc., we were finally visited by a Monarch butterfly.  It stayed around the garden for quite a while, nectaring on several plants, giving me lots of photo ops.

It wasn't until I saw this photo on my computer that I realized there was a caterpillar on the underside of the leaf, in addition to the butterfly.

For some reason, the Paul Simon song, Mother and Child Reunion started going through my head!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

A Butterfly's Tale

Yesterday I blogged about the freeze damage in the garden, and my concerns for the Monarch caterpillars and chrysalises.

Well this morning, when I went outside to feed the birds (quite a bit later than my weekday, pre-dawn bird feeding) I caught sight of a flutter of beautiful orange and black on the ground.

One of the chrysalises underneath the bird bath had emerged! 

She was sitting on the ground, soaking up the winter sun, unfolding her wings.  

 I left her walk on to my hand and transported her to a nearby container full of violas, so she has some nectar when she's ready.

A couple of the other chrysalises look like there's still change going on inside, so hopefully we'll see more beauties for Christmas!
 
PostScript
The story is not over for this young lady yet.

Her wings didn't straighten out properly, so two days later, she's still unable to fly. She didn't appear to be drinking from the plant I put her on and she was becoming lethargic, so I mixed up some nectar for her and she sat on my hand having a drink yesterday.

Today, I went out and bought some fresh sponges to dip in the sugar water and hang up over the container of pansies. She's been climbing up and down the ribbon they are hanging from and taking sips of the nectar.

I don't have much hope that she will fly, but I'm doing all I can to make her short life as comfortable as it can be.

On the plus side, two more of the chrysalises hatched and I saw the butterflies fly through the garden a little while ago, in search of nectar. Perhaps they will join my little girl on the sponges now I've come inside.

Update
We made the butterfly as comfortable as we could. Because of the expected high winds over Christmas, we brought her inside and set her up in a large cardboard box which I punched holes in for air circulation. We also set some branches in there, with the sponges dipped in sugar water hanging from them. For a few days she rested comfortably, either climbing the branches or sipping from the sponges.

Then, two days ago I found her lying on the bottom of the box. She was still moving feebly, so I set her on a nest of soft tissue.

This morning we laid her to rest in a special spot in the butterfly garden.

I hope she is flying free now.

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

What a Difference Two Hours Makes

Here we are in December and, although we had some cold weather and even some frosts earlier in the fall, the recent weather has been very mild.

Even so, I've been surprised at the number of butterflies we still have floating around the garden.  We've got Sulphurs, Gulf Fritillaries, Buckeyes and Monarchs.

At the end of October I blogged that we had Monarch caterpillars and chrysalises.  Who knew then that I'd be able to report another chrysalis in DECEMBER?

Mum and dad (visiting from England for the Thanksgiving Holiday) were mildly amused as I kept watch over the most recent caterpillar and probably thought I was nuts to get excited over it.

When I went out this morning to feed the birds at 9:51 am, I got even more excited when I noticed the caterpillar had attached himself to the fence and was starting to curl up.

I was totally amazed when I went to check on him later to discover that, in a period of just two hours he had completely transformed into a chrysalis! The photo below is time stamped 11:51 am!

For some reason, I thought it would take longer than that.  What a difference two hours makes!


Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.

More Monarch News

What a wonderful day to be out in the garden!  Clear blue skies, low humidity, pleasant temperatures - just perfect!  OK, so I had some indoor chores I could have been doing, but it was just too nice to be stuck indoors.

I spent the afternoon out in the garden -- I planted a few bulbs, I pulled a few weeds, and then I just sat and enjoyed the day.

There were still several butterflies floating around, such as this Gulf Fritillary.  But the Monarch nursery is what has me super excited this year.

In my last blog post I mentioned that we had several Monarch caterpillars, and also some chrysalises, including a couple under the birdbath.

A couple of days ago, I took another peek under the birdbath and noticed that I could see the distinctive black and orange coloration of a Monarch butterfly inside one of the chrysalises (below on the left).  

Yesterday my husband spotted a Monarch sunbathing in our newly planted pine tree (replacement for the one that we had to have removed).

When I checked the chrysalis under the birdbath, sure enough it was empty! We were looking at a brand new Monarch :-)

Here's another chrysalis that's easier to see. If you click to see the larger version, you can really see the orange and black markings. This one is on the fence and I was hoping it would emerge today, while I was home.  But Mother Nature works to her own schedule!

To add to the merriment, I noticed a Monarch floating round the milkweed today, laying eggs. See that little white dot in the middle of the photo below?

 As I examined the plant to see if I could find any more eggs, I spotted a tiny caterpillar, about a third of an inch long. I couldn't get a photo of that one, but here's another that I was able to get a photo of.

There are still several more chrysalises to emerge, including one on the back of a garden chair, and now a new batch of caterpillars.  I hope the milkweed holds out!

Words and photographs by Jayne Wilson, Green and Serene, Jayne's Country Garden.