Thankfully this week's prompt wasn't difficult to find a response - only because of all the rain we've been having. We are overcoming our drought and some of the landscapes are looking closer to normal (although many trees and plants did not survive). Saw this guy and a few of his friends hanging around an abundance of greenery - searching for the perfect spot to form their chrysalis and change to monarch butterflies. Here's my green & my luck - feeling lucky that we found them and they are a sign that things are slowly returning to normal (as long as the rain continues).
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| 4th stage instar, monarch caterpillar - will be making his anchor thread soon |
My kids were with me when we found these caterpillars; in a very public (tourist) place - sure hope they survive - the monarch population has been suffering as well (loss of habitat). This image reminded us of our recent past - we had a monarch waystation in our backyard... we raised monarchs and tagged them at a certain time of year for tracking to their over-wintering habitat in Mexico. Our waystation was destroyed in a hurricane several years ago, and got busy/caught up in daily activities and never recreated it. We didn't realize how much we missed watching, feeding, monitoring them and other insects that found their way to our backyard, so we talked about replanting a small portion of our yard to attract the monarchs and others. I will definitely keep everyone updated on our progress - we haven't dug in the dirt in a while and although I know I'm going to be extremely sore (that seems to be the story of my life lately), I can't wait to get started!!
The University of Kansas developed the Monarch Watch organization many years ago - their website contains very interesting information about tagging, creating habitats, biological information, and a shop where you can purchase books and other items that are monarch related or decorated. I hope you'll check them out at
Monarch Watch - and even better - plant a few nectar and/or host plants among your other flowers - it is very easy to help out these beautiful insects.
Linking up with Focus 52 at Two Scoopz - click
here to see other images of green or luck.
UPDATE: Forgot to include camera/lens info in the original posting: 105mm macro lens, slight cropping otherwise SOOC
Gorgeous!
ReplyDeleteAnd how interesting about the monarchs. I hope you recreate your station. I'd love to see some more photos.
Thanks for linking up this week!
Don't think I'll be able to recreate the entire station - it was really large, but any amount of habitat replacement is great.
DeleteAwesome! I'm so glad you were able to photograph this caterpillar. What an amazing life butterflies have! I'm excited to hear if (and how) you recreate your way station!
ReplyDeleteIf all goes well, I may add the partial waystation activities/info to my blog as a page - after today's weed pulling session I'm already feeling stiff. Thanks for visiting - hope you stop by again.
DeleteWow! Impressive focus! The backdrop is really gorgeous too!
ReplyDeleteThank you for following the thumbnail & taking a minute to leave a comment. I love my macro lens, but haven't done any of this type of photography in a while - I'm glad I was able to get one shot that I felt good about.
DeleteWhat a neat shot! I really enjoyed reading about the monarchs; each October we head to Chincoteague/Assateague Islands over Columbus Day weekend. That's usually when the monarchs appear along the beach as part of their annual migration. We've noticed the deciine over the years...it's an amazing experience to sit on the beach and just watch them dance along the shoreline.
ReplyDeleteI have only been lucky enough to witness the migration once in my life & it was an accident - walking in the woods & we came upon thousands of them resting in the trees - it was over 25 years ago & it was a site I'll never forget. You are very lucky to have that opportunity.
DeleteWhat a great macro and story to go with it. I hope you can get another waystation going, that would be interesting. We use to have a lot of monarchs in our yard but like you said they are in the decline.
ReplyDeleteWe'll get something going in the yard, not the full-blown waystation. Thinking of adding a "page" to my blog about the new efforts. Hope the monarchs find us again.
DeleteIsn't he/she gorgeous! I've never seen the actual monarch caterpillar. I love your story of having had a waystation, it sounds exciting. Good luck with recreating it. Thanks for sharing the site, I will take a look and see what I can do to add places for these beauties to inhabit.
ReplyDeleteIt is suprisingly easy to add nectar & host plants to existing flower beds - the trick is to either not use or be very careful with poisons & chemicals. We have a chemical-free yard (well up until I had to break out the roundup to attack the dewberry infestation), and over a few years we saw multiple generations of ladybugs (all their stages), praying mantis, etc return to our yard. It was so much fun.
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