I've posted about monarchs a couple of times before on the blog ... Monarch Memories 2021 and Monarch Release 2019 . We've kept milkweed and flowers in the yard in hopes of attracting the elusive orange winged beauties ... and it paid off again this year.
The milkweed in the front yard (featured in the 2021 experience) would grow so large and ungainly, I wanted to eventually eliminate it. I'd shifted some seeds/starts to the backyard, as milkweed will also grow in shady, low-water conditions, where I don't have a lot of other plants. While we still had some of the milkweed in the front, we now had three patches in the backyard as well.
I was sitting at my computer, positioned behind a window, looking into the backyard, when I saw a flash of orange ... I dropped what I was doing and grabbed my phone to double check (I had thought I'd seen a monarch earlier in the season, but it was so quick I hadn't been sure). But this time, I got photo proof, and happened to snap the shot right as Mrs. Monarch was laying an egg ...
It wasn't all without drama. I was a little worried the cooler temps in the house (I like my air conditioning) and thought Pilly might benefit from some natural exposure. I moved the enclosure out to the patio. I was sure to tell those who lived at home (Hubs, #4, #5) so that they wouldn't think something bad had happened, but #3 walked in without that info and exclaimed "oh no, Pilly! Where's Pilly?" I assured him Pilly was alright, just outside instead of on the kitchen table. But then ... Pilly was NOT in the enclosure. Really? There were a couple holes, but they were small. Of course Pilly was tiny, but still. There was a batch of milkweed three or four feet away, on the other side of the porch stairs, but that seemed like 1000 miles to a tiny caterpillar. No milkweed in any other direction. While I hoped maybe he'd somehow make it to the milkweed, I didn't hold out much hope.
There was a family text thread following all things caterpillar ...
A few days later, I glanced at the milkweed by the back porch and ... there was Pilly! He'd grown, had eaten a few leaves, left behind little poop pellets (that's actually the first thing I noticed). It was close to chrysalis time, so I moved him back into the enclosure in the kitchen, so we could keep an eye on him.
The whole family was over on August 31 (Keaton's birthday) when Pilly climbed to the side of the enclosure, right on the zipper (was he trying to get out again?) and formed the "J" ... I was trying to watch, as the transformation is pretty amazing, but I missed it. One look he was still a caterpillar, then next, he was a green blob. Still squirming, missed it by a minute! Over the next couple weeks the chrysalis continued it's transformation ... due to the placement in the enclosure, I wasn't able to get good pictures (and couldn't open it up either, good thing we only had one caterpillar in there, as I wasn't able to replace the milkweed).
Friday, September 12, Keaton stopped by again and noticed that the chrysalis had darkened. He came over again Saturday morning, hoping to witness the emergence. He and Coop went to a movie and while they were gone ... it happened. I was home, peeking at the enclosure every time I walked into the kitchen. One time I glanced over, I saw a larger shape, newly emerged, wings still wet. Once he (I do think it was a male, dots on the wings) moved, I was able to put a couple flowers in just in case he wanted to feed, but mostly he was just recovering, getting fully filled out. Keaton came over the next morning again and we let him handle the release.
While Pilly was in the chrysalis stage, I was in the kitchen and again, I saw a flash of orange out the window! I ran outside, and we had a monarch visiting, and again, we got a single egg ...
... as our enclosure was occupied, and we'd already been lucky enough to experience the monarch cycle, I decided we'd leave this egg in the wild, watching where we could. Unfortunately, the egg never hatched (non-fertilized?)
