Broken Wings

As I have previously posted, I was obsessed with nurturing my monarch flock over summer, with mixed success because of the invasive wasp population. But when the weather cooled the wasps left, the caterpillars sprang into action. At one stage I counted up to 35 chrysalises on and around my swan plant.
But alas, as my mother predicted, because they metamorphasized (morphed?) in the cooler weather, the chance of survival is slim for the butterflies. It's just too cold for them to hatch most of the time, and when they do, many are turning out munted.
Today being a milder day, I returned home to find five newly hatched butterflies floundering around under the bush. To protect them from the dogs, I transferred them to a nearby plant. Three looked OK, but two had trouble staying on, due to damaged or malformed wings. The prognosis for them is probably not good... but all five together provided the opportunity to take some sweet pics!

 












PS There were those I had previously rescued and brought inside, such as this chrysalis that fell on the ground and was then sellotaped to the bookshelf ... then hatched under my wondrous gaze... only to have a particular dog who shall not be named use it as a plaything when my back was turned...

Before .........................and after!

The Incubator

All summer my glorious swan plant has yielded only 3 monarch butterflies :(

Plenty of butterflies have visited, mated, laid eggs by the dozen. Heaps of babies have hatched and begun to grow, as the partially eaten leaves show, (can you spot the baby here?) but none grow to full size... I believe the blame lies with wasps.

Last week the wind blew two heavy branches off the 'mother plant'. I painstakingly transferred all the babies to this fledgling plant in the other garden.

And most of them have survived and flourished on the little incubator plant!

Today I counted eleven little dudes hanging; in there, and I suspect there are a few more lurking.

The odds might be stacked against them though - the food supply is dwindling and there's a 'weather bomb' on the way...

But I am hoping if I keep visiting them, and watching over them, some will make it! Grow caterpillars, grow!

She made it!

OK I promise this will be the last Monarch Butterfly post. I'll admit I childishly obsessed with them. A hard promise to keep too, with 3 more lovely green chrysalis' attached to my brickwork and another fat caterpillar waiting to morph into one.

But tonight this lovely creature was sitting atop my wee swan plant, the remains of her encasement  evidence of her escape.

Truth be known again I cannot be certain this is 'the one', as the chrysalis below was also empty tonight.

But I am just grateful that, after watching it for so long, the tenuous little caterpillar-eaten twig did manage to stay intact and a miracle butterfly did emerge.

Watching and Waiting

I have been mentally guarding this little life-form since it became the only one of my caterpillars to undergo the full transformation to a chrysalis. The whole metamorphosis thing still fascinates me, both on a scientific level and in terms of simple awe and wonderment,
I wonder if I will capture her in her flighted form when she (all monarchs are 'she' to me) emerges in a few days. Hope so.

I grew this!

Well, sort of.

Way back in January I bought a few plants to zhuzh the place up. Contrary to my predictions, I did not kill them off. While the sunflowers are long gone, and the petunias have almost run their course, the herbs are still adding flavour to my cooking.

The swan plant had been doing quite well too, apart from trying to fend off aphids - hmmm, and failing.

On Friday I happened to notice some juicy caterpillars had appeared on my plant! I had not spotted them till they were pretty big. This is, after all, why we grow swan plants. To grow monarch caterpillars and butterflies. I feel just like a kid again and will be out to check on them daily. Hope they survive - not much food on this fledgling swan plant, and they are fighting for sustenance with the aphids. Plus I am sure there were 4 on Friday, and only 2 today...

Kia kaha little caterpillars!