As I was sitting at my desk, looking out the sliding glass door to the patio, I saw what I thought was a ladybug on one of the Butterfly Bushes. I had to go investigate. I like having ladybugs on my plants to keep them clean of aphids. Yes, turns out I was right. We do have little black aphids on those plants so it goes to reason that those buggers will attract ladybugs. Feast away little red and black helpers. Feast away!
While I was checking out the plants for more activity, what should I find but a Monarch caterpillar. YAY! What a success. I wasn’t sure we would even see Monarchs this year especially in this location. Like I said previously, I haven’t seen many butterflies of any kind this summer here in our New Richmond, Wisconsin location.
So here I am, sitting writing about the wonders of finding a Monarch caterpillar on our butterfly plants and what do I see next? A Monarch Butterfly, for real, flitting around the flower heads drinking in the nectar of these flowers. Oh, my! This is a big, gold star moment.
Just a note for the survival of our little striped friend eventually to become a grand winged Monarch. We had a gigantic rain and wind storm a couple weeks ago that blew large limbs off trees and uprooted trees throughout the area as well as on the Association’s property. I watched as the wind whipped the huge maple tree outside our backyard by the pond. The branches nearly bent in half from the gale. The maple tree down the way by the pond lost nearly half of it size with a large section breaking off and dropping partially in the pond. The storm seemed to have near tornado type winds. One of the aftermaths of the storm has been a decrease in the number of birds in our little area. Prior to the storm, we had lots of redwing blackbirds, starlings and crackles as well as many small song birds and a fair number of water fowl. Since the storm there have been none of the above except a family of Mallard ducks, a mother and 8 goslings. No blackbirds, starlings, grackles or song birds. It makes me think they all blew away. Most likely, they relocated to safer territory.
The reason I make note of this bird situation is that the lone caterpillar now has a chance of survival. No birds to pick it off for its breakfast or dinner.
I’ll be watching.
Deb’s Blog 