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.

Not sure why it took so long to realize I should have been blogging about butterflies long, long ago. The season is 2/3 over, so I've got a lot to catch up on. Anyone out there who looks for monarch caterpillar's every year, loves to watch them grow, morph into their chrysalis' and then emerge? I have been fascinated by this since I was a very young girl, and I've been gathering caterpillars ever since. There is something awesome about watching a caterpillar become a butterfly...so I'll share what goes on in my caterpillar hunting world, and hope someone out there joins in.

While our summer started early, I thought the Monarchs would arrive and the caterpillars would also be early. Not so. Usually, I find my first caterpillar the first week of June. I couldn't find any. I allowed milkweed to grow freely in my yard--even the front yard. No caterpillars. I saw the Monarch's, but no caterpillars. Finally, I found one. Just one. I got out my butterfly cage, and faithfully got it fresh leaves, watched it turn into a chrysalis, and one morning, watched from beginning to end as the fat bodied butterfly with tiny teeny mutant looking wings crawl out, pump it's body and saw the wings grow into straight, big, beautiful wings. Then I released it into my garden. I was happy!!!

Some summers I have only found one or two caterpillars. So this marked the summer a success.

Weeks went by, and guess what? In my own backyard...voila! I found a couple of caterpillars! Three, on one plant! Into my cage they went. I watched them grow and grow, and one went into its chrysalis. The next went right up to the top next to the chrysalis, spun his anchoring web, and hung into it's J shape...all was well.

That morning, I took the cage out to our garage to clean it out, and put fresh leaves in, because I still had one caterpillar left. The cage was zipped shut, and I thought fresh air and sunshine would be good. NOT! We were in and out of the house, packing the car for a trip. Each time I passed by the cage, I looked into make sure all was well. One trip into the house, and I noticed a HOLE in the top part of the cage! WHAT? There was never a gaping hole! I would have noticed...wait...where was the chrysalis, and the J hanging caterpillar??? BOTH GONE!

Within seconds of one of my trips into the house, something had come and ripped open that cage, and nabbed the two innocent creatures. Without a sound. Without a trace. It had to be one of those swallows who tried each year to build its nest above our front door, and dive-bombs our black lab all day long. I thought swallows were nice! I USED TO like them. They eat pests, don't they? Now, I lost two almost butterfly's, in the blink of an eye, just when I thought I was being kind to them. I was appalled all day long. The NERVE! The cage stays in the house from now on. I thought milkweed made the caterpillars taste nasty? Apparently, not to a swallow. And how could that bird have seen them through the white mesh of the cage? They must have hovered or perched on top and poked their nasty pointy beaks right through the mesh, made the steal and flown off. I hate that. Another hard lesson learned. I'm down to one caterpillar.

Stay tuned. I have more stories from this year and more caterpillars too...share some of your own, I'd love to hear!