Insects

 
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

Considered one of the most beautiful butterflies – thus the name “Monarch”.  Monarchs will lay eggs on milkweed plants.  I planted milkweed to attract them and it worked.  The above photo from my garden – a Monarch on a coneflower.  The caterpillars grow and eat the milkweed leaves and then crawl up to a suitable place where they hang in the chrysalis stage.  Right now there are about 15 caterpillars happily chewing on the milkweed plant.  The are four generations each summer and only the fourth lives to make the migration all the way south to a forest in Mexico.  Try “googling” the Monarch butterfly to read about this most fascinating insect, their life cycle and amazing annual migration.

Below:  Monarch caterpillar feeding on a milkweed plant. They grow extremely fast in this stage.

Below:  Monarch chrysalis.  They are a very beautiful green colour with some gold trim.  If you look closely on the right hand side you can see the faint outline of the Monarch’s wing inside the chrysalis.  I will post photos of the developing chrysalis as it develops at a later date and hopefully of the butterfly emerging as well.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

You don’t have to take a trip to see nature because it is always around us even in our own backyards.  You can plant certain flowers that will attract butterflies ( Monarchs like the milkweed plant ), others will attract hummingbirds and so on.  Today a few photos from my backyard as I was  outside enjoying the sun and puttering in the garden for a few hours.

Above:  Butterfly gathering nectar from a Joe Pye plant      Below:  A House Wren chattering on the garden fence.

Below:  A few photos of bees gathering pollen

Below:  Not sure if this is a wasp or bee but if was flying around with a large piece of plant leaf and then landed.  A leaf-cutter of sorts.

Below:  This is a domestic garden plant that was tagged “Love in the Mist” when I bought one a few years back.  It seeds itself every year and produces these beautiful delicate flowers in blue and purple tones.

Enjoy!

~Sharon