Monarch

Monarch, Sept, 2022 The Monarch Butterflies are plentiful this year, more than I can ever remember. They seem to love the stand of Mexican Sunflowers in my wild flower garden, although the Monarchs aren't bashful about raiding the zinnias either. This was such a welcome sight after many years of just onesy-twosies. I hope this …

Milkweed

Milkweed Believe it or not, this is National Pollinator Week. What will they think of next!? My Common Milkweed, host plant for the Monarch butterfly, are going gang busters this year. They are hearty and robust with huge flower heads. I gave up trying to cultivate them; now I just let them come up where …

Monarch Tagging

Tagged Monarch Butterfly Monarch butterflies finally showed up in my back yard, although not near as many as last year. It's always thrilling to see them knowing this generation of Monarchs are on their way to Mexico. A net was used to catch this one. My daughter deftly tagged it and recorded the date, place …

Butterfly Garden

Butterfly Rest Stop First of July and the butterfly garden looks to be in good shape. In full bloom are Gaillardia (yellow), miniature Cone Flower (pink) and Soapwort (white), commonly called "Bouncing Betty". Behind these colorful perennials are Common Milkweed, where Monarch Butterfly lay their eggs. Also, Goldenrod, Nebraska's state flower, and giant Sunflower. I'm …

Monarch

2019 Monarch It seems late in the season to be seeing the first Monarch butterfly in my yard. I've found a few caterpillars, but this is the first adult Monarch. This shot was taken with my new "bridge" camera: f5.6 , 1/320th sec, and 400 mm . I'm experimenting with it, hoping to use it …

DP-1 Lift Off

I started this little science project with a Monarch larva (caterpillar) on August 11th, when  DP-1 was less than 1/4" long.   It grew to over 1 1/2" long before it pupated on August 29th. After ten days in the pupa stage, a magnificent female Monarch butterfly hatched around noon on September 8th.  When we opened the …