Swallotail!

And now the really exciting news!  I found a swallowtail caterpillar on the parsley I planted by the pond!!!  I'm so excited, I keep checking on it.  It is tiny, black with white in the middle.  It "stuck its tongue" out at me yesterday, that orange gland they use as a defense.  I'll take photos.

Catch Up

Generation two is well on its way, but with many losses.  To date: 

• 6 chrysalis
• 6 caterpillars
• 3 new butterflies released

Sad news, every day I find a dead caterpillar!  Two died hanging in their J's.  Two chrysalis's died; one was not formed correctly.  I found a couple caterpillars on the bottom of the safehouse, and a couple right on the stem, seemingly in "mid bite."  Total: 7.  Reason: unknown.  Because so many have died, I am thinking its because the milkweed plant they were on got residue from the stain that was put on the pond's bridge.  I had thought the stain would wear off or wash off; it did not.  Ten days ago, I pulled out all of those milkweed plants.  I found 10 caterpillars on them, and put them in the safehouse; I have found dead caterpillars since.

I sometimes think it might be best to leave the caterpillars in the wild, and so have found a couple and have been watching them.  Today I checked on I've been watching for about a week.  It had grown quite large, but this afternoon when I went to check on it, I couldn't find it.  I saw black, crumpled skin and what looks suspiciously like a caterpillar head on a leaf....I think I do need to put the caterpillars in my safehouse when I find them.  While searching for my large caterpillar friend, I found 1 tiny one on the same plant and brought him in.

Speaking of this, I inspected the two big old plants by our pond and counted 3 on one plant, 4 on the other.  I may put them in the safehouse tomorrow.

Generation 2

I have 4 microscopic caterpillars, and one egg.  One egg hatching this morning, joining the slightly bigger than microscopic caterpillar, and I found two more in the backyard on the milkweed by the pond.  They are too tiny to photograph with my phone-camera.

Suprise!

Yesterday morning, I opened our laundry cabinet door, and out flew a butterfly!  I followed it around, and ushered it outside.  It had to have been in there for days!  Maybe a week or more...I know one of my caterpillars was "MIA" so must have somehow crawled out and into the cupboard.  Looking around, I found the empty chrysalis.  take a look:

Here is the last of "generation 2011/1" hatching this morning:

It's a girl!  I released her early afternoon...she flew directly to the Pear tree.

According to my blog and hand written notes, my Hatched and Released count is lacking:
#5  on June 25
#6 on June 26
#7 on July 2, released by Allie
#8, and 9 July 4
#10 & 11 July 5
#12 July 7
#13 July 9

I have 18 empty chrsalis', so obviously, somewhere along the line I did not keep track properly since I have dates of hatching and releasing only for 12 of them.  Yes, I must get better at documenting.

The good news is, all of my "generation one" caterpillars have hatched!  While I found two caterpillars dead, and one MIA (more on that in the next post) all the others went into their chrysalis', hatched successfully and are flying around now; I see Monarchs in my back yard and believe them to be "mine!"

The one that hatched today is the last of generation one.  She made his chrysalis on a leaf.  Cleaning the safehouse out, I dropped the stem and I know the chrysalis smacked hard on the floor, so I was wondering if I had caused damage...no I did not. 

A Day Made for Butterflys

Perched on my finger, this butterfly is ready to be released!

He flew off, but landed on the deck, so I carefully put him on our lilac bush.

Buttefly #4, another boy, was out of his chrysalis and hanging on the shell early this morning when I got up.  It's a hot, sunny day--ideal butterfly weather--and I released him into the garden. 

Meanwhile, my timing was perfect to observe, from start to finish, a caterpiller transform from caterpillar to chrysalis.  It was exactly like in the movie "Men in Black" when the alien, clothed in a man's body, unzips his "human" skin and a slimy, mishapen, colorful alien emerges out of the body. 

Here's the play-by-play:  Hanging in it's J for hours, I noticed that the caterpillar relaxed it's "J" position.  It was hanging straight, and appeared somewhat lifeless.  I thought perhaps it had died.  But then, I noticed an almost imperceptible swelling at the back of it's head and ever so slight upturn like it was resuming the J position.  The skin on the back, just behind the head split open and a bright green blob (almost like the slime you purchase as a kids' toy) bulged out.  The green bulge grew larger as the caterpillar's green, black and white skin split further along its back and soon began to peel upward as the green bulge grew larger and bulgier.  The whole thing circled around and around; it appeared this process took some effort.  The tiny black caterpillar legs, which are on its skin, were moving as the skin peeled away.  In one to two minutes, the caterpillar skin was at the top, like a discarded suit and the green blob was circling around and around, until the skin fell off.  The now green awkwardly shaped oblong blob that was no longer caterpillar and not-quite chrysalis circled round and round, slowly taking shape as the chrysalis.  Although I did not touch it, it looked wet and I imagine the green chrysalis was slowly hardening.  This process took quite a awhile, less than an hour, but more than 30 minutes, until the perfectly shaped chrysalis with gold dots hung still, where it will stay for 10-14 days. 

Butterly #3 is a Girl!

And here she is!  Checking on the chrysalis' last night, they all looked brilliant green, with dots of gold.  This morning when I got up, there was this perfect butterfly, patiently hanging from it's chrysalis.  With two egg pouches on both lower wings, there's no doubt this is a girl.  I released her in the backyard, and she immediately flew off.  I expect one butterfly a day now.  I need to find more caterpillars!

Buttefly Perfection!

Hatched on June 26, the morning of Charlie's grad party, the timing for butterfly #2 was absolutely perfect, considering that Julie, Charlie's mom, gave me the egg from which this butterfly hatched!  The chrysalis had darkened the night before, so I was aware that he would hatch soon.  When I checked on him the following morning, I noticed his overly fat body and crumpled, tiny wings clinging to the shell of the chrysalis, and then observed his wings unfurl into straight, flawless orange and black wings.  Several hours later, I carefully and gently put him into an envelope and took him to Charlie.  When Charlie opened the envelope, out flew the butterfly, landing right on the front of Charlie's shirt, where he stayed to greet a couple of guests before taking off into the wild blue yonder.  I couldn't have planned it more perfectly.

It's Butterfly Time!

It

It's a Butterfly!  And, it's a Boy!  (How can I tell?  He has no pouches, which contain eggs, on the two lower wings; they show up like black circles in about the middle of the black veins on the lower wings.)  I woke up just before 8 a.m. and found the butterfly hatched and hanging with perfect wings on the shell of its chrysalis.  He gathered strength on the ivy in my kitchen, and I just now released him.  I wished him well and hope to see him flying around the garden.

One more went into chrysalis, and another chrysalis looks like it may be ready to hatch tomorrow.  We'll see...

It's Chrysalis Time!

Those two cute caterpillars in the earlier photo are now luminescent chrysalis's.  When I opened the safehouse up to clean out the old leaves and add fresh water, I found one of the caterpillar's had made its chrysalis right on one of the leaves!  I have NEVER seen a caterpillar make its chrysalis on a leaf, and never found one in the wild either.  Finding it was a surprise and a delight.  Since the stalk was cut off and put in water, however, its leaves would not remain strong for long.  I checked on the chrysalis daily to make sure it hadn't fallen, and, wouldn't you know it, one day there was yet another chrysalis hanging from another leaf right beside it.

Now the two are safely tied with threads and I taped them from the top, along with the other chrysalis's. 

Tonight another caterpillar is up there, finding the right spot to hang in its J and turn into a chrysalis, and three more caterpillars still devouring leaves.

On my run today, I actually saw a big caterpillar on a leaf.  After I finished my run ( 3.3 miles, my longest yet...) I went back and got the whole milkweed plant, with the lovely caterpillar; they're both in the safehouse now...here s/he is: 

Here's an update:

June 12: Total 16 caterpillars

June 13, I found 2 on a leaf on our cool down walk after our run, bringing the total to 18 caterpillars

June 14:  first chrysalis (as noted above!)

June 15: I found 2 more caterpillars in the field by Questar, bringing the total to 19 caterpillars, 1 chrysalis.
Upon arriving home, I'm pretty sure one tiny caterpillar did not make the trip. Sincerely very sorry little guy, life on a bicycle can be dangerous. Actual total: 18 caterpillars.

June 18:  One is making it's chrysalis on the top.
I cleaned the safehouse out, and found one dead on a leaf.  AND one chrysalis on a leaf.  16 caterpillars.

June 19:  Found another caterpillar in the neighborhood park.  Total caterpillars 18  Total chrysalis' 3

June 20: Found another medium sized caterpillar dead on a leaf, no apparent reason.  Waaa.
Total caterpillars: 17

 June 24: Found a big caterpillar in Pamela Park, Edina.  Total caterpillars 4  Total chrysalis's 12

That leaves 2 MIA.  Not sure what happened or where.

Tomorrow, I expect the first butterfly to emerge!  See the middle one, turning "black," that's the first stage of the butterfly emerging.

Stay tuned...I will have photo's!

Three More!

Same place, same time...I found three more in the fields by Questar on my afternoon break.  You can barely see it, but the microscopic caterpillar is on the edge of the leaf in the curve at the bottom left corner...kind of like "where's Waldo?"  I brought a small tin box to keep them safely in for the bicycle trip home, so they don't get squashed in my backpack.

Shelly, if you've found my blog, rest assured, these three are safely in their safehouse.  I will post a photo of it tomorrow.

I went to the Wild Bird Store in Eagan, MN and they have zero caterpillars so far! 

Getting Bigger and Finding More

The two caterpillars are growing...here's a photo of one today.  S/he is about half way to maturity.

June 8
On my 15 minute afternoon break I found a tiny caterpillar in the fields next to the Questar buildings.  Since I bicycled to work, I bicycled home, hoping not to squeezed it in my backpack.  At home it appeared somewhat squished, although it moved when I put it in the caterpillar safehouse; that's what I'm calling "it."  I don't like the word "cage."  From years past, I've learned that caterpillars are eaten, crushed, mowed over or subject to many other kinds of demises, so I put them in a "safe house" where they can grow, go into their chyrsallis and then be released as beautiful butterflies. 

June 9
Since I found one caterpillar yesterday, I went back to fields again on my 15 minute break, where I found another one!  I also found a friend, Michelle, who was working in the building right there; she wondered what I was finding in the fields next to her workplace.  I promised to find a caterpillar for her tomorrow, and share the blog with her.

Then, I came home and found three caterpillars in our own backyard!  That is my very favorite place to find them.  The waterfall seems to attract the butterflies, and when I looked on the leaves of the milkweed plants growing next to it, I found their babies, the caterpillars.  One is microscopic.

That makes a total of four found today.  Combined with the one yesterday and the two that hatched from the two eggs Julie found and gave me, I have seven caterpillars so far and no casualties.

They're Here!

They're here! June 1, my friend Julie gave me two milkweed plants with eggs on them. Today, I saw tiny holes in the leaves, and yes...two microscopic caterpillars are eating away. Stay tuned, this promises to be an abundant butterfly summer.