Every Day is a Gift!
I went to a local Farmer’s Market on Saturday to buy some native Milkweed plants for my butterfly and pollinator garden. I found this caterpillar on one of the Swamp Milkweed plants I brought home.
Shared with John’s Cellpic Sunday
Patti has challenged us to focus on telling a story with our images.
My story is the life cycle of a Monarch butterfly. I haven’t been able to capture Monarch’s in my garden this year so these images are all from my archives.
Many thanks to Patti for the challenge Lens-Artists Challenge #255 – Telling a Story
Our Lens-Artists challenge from guest host Priscilla at Scillagrace is to “present a “Getting To Know You” post showing your relationship with a subject you’ve photographed. The subject could be a Person, a Place, a Culture, an Object…anything that has captured your attention, won your affection and taught you a thing or two.”
I’ve always enjoyed watching butterflies as they fly from one flower to another so I planted a butterfly garden several years ago. The more I watched them the more I wanted to learn about them. Monarchs frequently fly through the area to feed and lay their eggs on milkweed plants.
Monarch butterflies will feed on many different nectar plants. I have found Mexican Sunflowers to be a favorite for them and many other varieties of butterflies. By summer the garden will be covered with zinnias, Mexican Sunflowers, coneflowers, and other nectar plants.
Right now my garden is in it’s early stages with very few blooms. I’m afraid the few Monarch butterflies that have come by my garden have been disappointed in the slim pickings. The only nectar plant blooming right now is a single Mexican sunflower with multiple blooms. I’ve been watching the butterflies drink their fill.
Every year I enjoy getting to know the caterpillars before they move on to become butterflies. I’ve learned their job is to eat so they have the strength to transform into a chrysalis.
The only plant that Monarch caterpillars feed on is milkweed (Asclepias). This year the female Monarchs laid their eggs on just about every available milkweed leaf they could find. The eggs hatched into tiny caterpillars and for the second year in a row they have devoured every leaf on every milkweed plant.
I observed the first group of caterpillars for several days and observed how quickly they grew before crawling off to make their chrysalis.
The caterpillars like to spin their chrysalis in a safe place and I very rarely can find them. Hopefully all the these caterpillars will emerge as beautiful Monarchs.
Many thanks to Priscilla at Scillagrace.com for this Photo Challenge. Please be sure to visit her original post at Lens-Artists Challenge #145: Getting to Know You
Just two days after I posted about the Monarch caterpillars in my butterfly garden the caterpillars are continuing to devour every leaf on several of my milkweed plants. One bite at a time, they chew up a leaf and move on to the next. In just a few days they have stripped some of the plants until there is nothing left but bare stems.
Yesterday morning I counted about 10 caterpillars. One had attached itself in the hose reel on the edge of the flower bed. It was preparing to transform into a chrysalis.
A little while later I settled down in my chair under the arbor to read a book. I was facing the hose reel but was so engrossed in the book I didn’t look up for about 30 minutes. When I finally glanced over at the caterpillar I saw that while I was reading it had become a chrysalis.
Today there are more caterpillars and less milkweed leaves. They will continue taking their bites until they are full grown and ready to transform into a chrysalis.
Meanwhile, there are still Monarch butterflies flying around in pairs doing their mating dance. I’ve had a hard time getting a picture but I managed to catch this one drinking nectar on a Mexican Sunflower.
I’ll be keeping my eye on the chrysalis and hope to see a butterfly emerge in about 7 to 10 days.
This post was inspired by Discover Prompts Day 9 -Bite.
We are in the middle of the butterfly breeding season. I’ve seen pairs of Monarch butterflies flying around our yard recently and the females have been laying their eggs on milkweed leaves in my small backyard butterfly garden.
This morning I counted seven caterpillars on the milkweed including two different pairs munching on the leaves.
After about two weeks of eating, the caterpillar will be full grown and will make it’s crysalis. Approximately 10 days later the monarch butterfly will emerge.
This post was inspired by Discover Prompts Day 9 -Pairs.
Wandering Dawgs 