Amazing Monarch video...

Here's a link that my friend Denese sent me today ~ It's amazing video and a wonderfully written article by Julie Zickefoose, a writer and watercolor painter who lives on a 80 acre wildlife sanctuary in the Appalachian foothills of Ohio about the Monarch butterflies who lay eggs every year on the milkweed plants around her pond ~

Monarch Video & Article

Make sure you watch the video to the end, so as not to miss the butterfly emerging from its chrysalis! It's fabulous :)

No caterpillar left behind...

Well, our happy little Fritillary caterpillars have been munching away all season and although I didn't think they could do it....they have eaten every last bit of our very large, lush passion vine!

Oh no! There's nothing worse than hungry, hungry caterpillars! Fortunately I spotted a lovely passion vine near the pond, so we decided to move the little guys to their new buffet :o)

The stripped Passion Vine!












Clyde is collecting all the little guys {doggies are helping}.

Hooray!
Our new passion vine home...let's eat!

A happy Gulf Fritillary Butterfly!
{probably getting ready to lay MORE eggs}
The silver spots on the wings undersides make her easy to identify...

Caterpillar rescue accomplished!

My walk by the pond...

As I was walking by our pond this morning I noticed a small willow tree growing by the waters edge and as I looked closely I couldn't believe it...there were two Red-Spotted Purple butterfly caterpillars!

I ran back to the house to get the camera {you would think by now that I would ALWAYS carry my camera} and took a couple of pictures to share with you...


The caterpillars look kind of like a bird dropping {good camouflage} and love to nibble on tender willow leaves.

I frequently find the adult butterflies sipping sap from the trees or visiting my "rotting fruit" trays in the garden.


They usually drink with their wings open, showing off the beautiful iridescent blue color, however if you ever get a glimpse of the underside of their wings you will see the striking bright red/orange spots for which they were named!



Such a fun way to start the weekend!

My first Question Mark...

Yay!


I'm so excited!




I just spotted my very first Question Mark caterpillar on a little elm tree by the creek on my walk with the doggies this morning!

I'd only seen pictures in books, so this was quite thrilling {ok...I know I'm such a nerd}.

If you disturb it, the caterpillar looks like the punctuation mark it's named for. They love to munch on elm trees, hop vines and hackberry trees.












The adult butterflies prefer to sip juices from rotting fruit, tree sap and animal droppings {yuck!}. You can often find them perching, head down, on the side of a tree trunk.


I just love their wing shape..it kind of looks like a ragged old leaf...very cool!











With any luck, I may find a chrysalis on this afternoon's walk!