September 2010

 
These monarch caterpillars had been feeding on my milkweed plant in the garden this summer.   I decided to “harvest” a few this year and put them into a mesh house along with some milkweed stems to feed on.   They spun these beautiful green chrysalis with delicate gold trim (below).

In about two weeks the chrysalis looked like this (below) . . .  the Monarch wings are clearly visible now and it emerged from its chrysalis about 4 hours after this photo was taken.

The next photo is of a brand new Monarch Butterfly – less than 5 minutes old.  It was very wet, orange droplets dripped from its still crumpled wings.

Its wings slowly unfolded and the butterfly started to slowly open and close them . . . This went on for a while and gradually the wings become stiffer with every wingspread while the necessary fluids were being pumped through them.   In the morning, this beautiful butterfly greeted me after which it was set free out in the garden.

The buttefly in the above photo is about 7 hours old.    A future post will feature photos of what I believe was a Monarch Butterfly migration which I happened upon while driving in southern Manitoba in mid August.   Thousands of butterflies were hanging on tree branches and fluttering in the air.  Watch for it!

Enjoy!

~Sharon

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So – today in my kitchen I am hearing that all familiar and somewhat annoying cawing of crows.  The windows were open and they sounded terribly close today so I thought I would take a look see . . . This silly crow was sitting on the wire just above my window looking in.   Now, I actually like crows – they are very intelligent birds.  I just wish they could learn to keep the caws a little quieter.

I find the Blue Jays will sit out in the trees and “scream” if their peanut feeder is empty when they drop in for a snack.  It is interesting how wildlife can become so accustomed to being accomodated and fed by us.  

Enjoy!

~Sharon

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