Our Wildlife

9 out of 10 of Danielle's painted lady butterflies eclosed. She has slowly started to release them, but I told her they all have to go by Friday. They will be a week old by then and should have another week left to live. They have been very busy trying to"ensure the survival of their species", so we need to be sure they are free to find the right plants on which to deposit their eggs.

The fluttering butterflies are driving Clara crazy! They love sitting in the sunshine and become very active when we move them into a sunny spot. As you can see, this really bothers Clara. (She is not trying to get Danielle.)

Our monarch chrysalises are a beautiful jade green, speckled with flecks of gold and still look good. I was a little worried about the butterfly disease OE, but so far there aren't any dark spots or other telltale signs. We're keeping our fingers crossed!

And Monday, while we were on a walk and totally not looking for them, we found a monarch caterpillar on a milkweed plant. Our "native" plants really look like weeds and are not very attractive. We picked the leaf he was on and brought him home to place on one of the milkweed plants we've kept in our house. He wandered all around but didn't eat anything at all that day or the next. Since he's not big enough to make his chrysalis yet, I was worried he was going to starve. So, Danielle and I revisited the park today and cut some leaves from the plant he was on, just to see if it would make a difference to him. I cleaned them and put those in the pot with him, and he immediately started to devour them. I was surprised he was so picky since both plants were in the milkweed family and our other caterpillars ate ours just fine. After a little more research, I found that different types of milkweed contain different amounts of toxins. Our native plant must have a different amount of toxin than the tropical variety we placed him on and that's why he wouldn't eat it. Had he started on our plant, he wouldn't have wanted the native plant. And I'm sure you all find that just as interesting as I did!

While we were on that walk on Monday, we caught a frog. Danielle has more than a casual interest in frogs, and we have actually been considering getting her one. A free one is even better. My brother loaned us a home for him, and we're going to do our best to give Spot a good home. (When we returned to the park today, we released our tadpole into the pond where we found our frog.) He is a leopard frog, which is a very common frog for this area. He is really a very pretty frog. Apparently he loves crickets, too. (Why do we think this is so cool to watch?! BTW, that's the dog panting, not me.)

As far as our other wildlife - I think the early mornings are starting to catch up to Tyler; he's been very tired the last few evenings. He and Ron are working on another rocket to launch this weekend. I think Danielle is worn out, too, but is really looking forward to going back to school on Friday. I'm glad we have a long weekend to look forward to.