Let's Talk About Monarch Caterpillars

My next couple of posts are going to be devoted solely to talking about monarchs, so hopefully these will answer any questions you might have in case you're thinking about raising monarchs for yourself.

By now, you've probably heard or read the news that the monarch numbers (and butterflies in general) are all down this summer--perhaps due to the chillier and wetter than usual weather many of us have been experiencing this summer.

I've been finding quite a few monarch caterpillars in the backyard this week and here's a look at my re-populated monarch ranch.

Here are 4 large caterpillars I found on 2 plants the other night.

Monarch ranching is a really fun project that you might want to pursue with your kids or grandkids (or even on your own as I do!). So let's say you want to start a ranch, let me share some tips with you for going out and finding some caterpillars yourself.

First of all, you've got to find some Common Milkweed--the caterpillar's favorite food source. Hopefully you'll have some of this growing in your backyard or somewhere nearby. (And of course, you don't want to pick any that's been sprayed with chemicals.) The best thing to look for is a leaf that's been munched on. If you're lucky, the caterpillar will still be there and if you're really lucky, the caterpillar will be on top of the leaf!

Another clue to look for is poop (frass) on the leaves below where a caterpillar might be. The bigger the frass, the bigger the caterpillar you'll find.

Here's a lucky find--3 caterpillars on one plant, but notice that 2 are hiding underneath the leaves.

If you do find some caterpillars to populate your ranch, remember that you'll have to continue feeding them. I usually pick several leaves while I'm out there and store them in a baggie in the fridge. Once the caterpillars get bigger, they're eating machines, so you have to make sure you've got enough food to keep them fed until they turn into a chrysalis.

And speaking of chrysalis, take a look at what I also found yesterday........

A monarch chrysalis in the wild!! In all of my 50 years on this earth, it's the first time I've ever seen one! I was trimming back this huge milkweed patch next to the driveway because it had gotten too overgrown and was obstructing our view when backing out. The breeze just happened to blow this leaf back and I spotted the chrysalis. Thank goodness I didn't cut this stalk off before I saw the chrysalis.

Here's what it looked like when the leaf was just hanging--what amazing camouflage!

So I decided to remove this chrysalis from the leaf and add it to my ranch to see if it would hatch. Did you know you could do that? Let me show you how I did it. And before I go any further, I should tell you that I learned this from Dave, my monarch monitoring/bluebirding/master naturalist mentor.

Because this leaf would die before the butterfly hatched and the chrysalis has to hang in order for the butterfly to develop properly, I had to get it off the leaf.

See that little black "stem" at the top of the chrysalis? It's very stiff and hard, so this is what I'm going to attach a hanging thread to. That will allow me to tie the chrysalis to the roof of my monarch ranch. I put a needle at each end of the thread to make it easier to work with and just tied a good, tight square knot around the black stem.

Before the caterpillar turns into the chrysalis, it attaches itself to the underside of where the chrysalis will hang with a strong patch of silk. My next step was to carefully remove this silk patch from the leaf, so I pulled the handy-dandy Leatherman Micra from my pocket (you carry one of these with you at all times, right?) and gently loosened the silk patch from the leaf.

Once it's loosened, the entire patch was easily removed from the leaf.

Ta-Da!!! A monarch chrysalis ready to be attached to the ceiling of my monarch ranch.

In previous years, I've collected mostly eggs and raised them into caterpillars. This is the first year when the majority of my monarch butterflies will be hatched from larger caterpillars found in the backyard. There is a little bit more risk in hatching monarchs this way, mainly due to the chance of parasitic wasps or flies laying their eggs in the larva. There is no visible evidence when this occurs, but usually what happens is the butterfly is unable to develop due to the parasitic wasp or fly which develops instead inside the chrysalis. I've only had it happen a couple of times, but it's quite disappointing and something that you want to be aware of in case it happens in your monarch ranch.

Before I finish, here is an excellent website (just click on the link) if you're looking for more information on monarchs: Monarch Watch. I also really like "The Butterfly Book" by Don & Lillian Stokes as a reference guide. And I would be more than happy to try and answer any questions you have also. You can leave a comment or feel free to e-mail me (rjknits at msn dot com).

I hope you enjoyed learning more about collecting monarch caterpillars. Next time, I'm going to show you how to tag the monarch butterflies that you've raised in your ranch.

Birders Who Blog, Tweet & Chirp Event

Saturday, August 15th marked the first Minnesota gathering of Birders who Blog, Tweet and Chirp, and I was thrilled to be a part of this inaugural celebration of all things birdy. The event was attended by a good number of fellow Minnesota nature lovers and bloggers.....some who were new to me and some who were old friends

Here I am with my blogging friends Lynne (Hasty Brook) and Richard (At the Water). Lynne and I have been on previous birding adventures, but this was the first time I met Richard in person and I was really surprised and happy when I saw him in the parking lot because I didn't think he was going to be able to come.

We all met at the Carver Park Reserve near Victoria, Minnesota where Roger Everhart (Minnesota Bird Nerd) and his assistants were conducting a bird banding program at the Lowry Nature Center.
The birds weren't exactly cooperating, but Roger's enthusiasm and knowledge of birds was amazing and we enjoyed spending time with him even though there weren't any birds to band.

We also got to see a couple of raptors that are permanent residents at the Lowry Nature Center due to injuries they received in the wild. Here is a pretty little female Merlin.

And this is a female Barred Owl. Both of these birds are used for teaching purposes. The handler was taking them out for their daily weigh-in and feeding.

We finally got started down the woodsy trail to do some birding and were lucky enough to find this Northern Red-Bellied Snake on the trail. This was a reptile "lifer" for me. I never knew we had snakes this small in Minnesota.

Virginia (Bees in the City) caught and held the snake for me while I took this picture and then I got to hold the snake so she and others could take pictures. Honestly, I've seen night crawlers bigger than this snake. It was so neat!

We had a another surprise for this event when Hap from New Hope showed up to bird with us. Some of you are probably familiar with Hap if you're a regular reader of Lynne's Hasty Brook blog, and we were all thrilled to meet him in person, including Dawn and Jeff (Dawn's Bloggy Blog).

Before leaving Carver Park Reserve, we stopped to check out the Trumpeter Swans on the big pond. While not a life bird for me, this was the first time I'd seen them in Minnesota, so it was good to check them on my Minnesota list! (sorry, this is a crappy picture of a beautiful bird)

Of course, the Great Blue Heron is a pretty common bird, but I loved the way this picture turned out with the bird's reflection in the water.

After a stop for a delicious meal and fun conversation, it was time to head over to Hyland Lake Park Reserve and the Richardson Nature Center. After some discussion and study of the maps by Richard, Hap, Mike and Lizette (Mike & Lizette's Travel & Thoughts), we decided to head down the Prairie Trail for more birding.

We got as far as Wood Duck Pond where oddly enough, we spotted a large number of Wood Ducks perched in a dead tree that had fallen down in the pond. Jeff and Dave both brought their scopes so we all got good looks. I've never seen so many wood ducks altogether in one place!

Farthest to the right in the picture above are Penny (Penelopedia blog) and her husband Dave and just to the left of them (in the black shirt) is "Other Sharon" (aka Hellziggy).

While walking the Prairie Trail, we spotted this industrious male Goldfinch gathering thistledown for nesting material. (Another thing I've never seen before!)

Watching turtles and hooded mergansers from the observation dock.

All too soon, it was 4:00 -- time for me to brave the freeway traffic and construction detours and head back to Rochester with memories of a wonderful day spent birding with old and new friends. It's always fun when you get a chance to meet bloggers face-to-face and spend time with people who share your interests. The other great thing was that all of these folks (except for Dawn and Jeff) live only a couple hours from me, so there's every likelihood that we'll be able to get together in the future for more birding adventures like this. Thanks everyone for a fun day.....I really enjoyed meeting all of you!

Summer Volunteer Project

To retain my Master Naturalist certification, I'm required to complete a minimum of 40 volunteer service hours. The Monarch Larva Monitoring Project is one of the ways I've been obtaining my volunteer hours. Every Wednesday evening, a small number of dedicated volunteers head over to the Payne Field near Rochester's Quarry Hill Nature Center to look for monarch eggs and caterpillars. In the photo below, my buddy Dave begins his search. Dave is also a fellow Master Naturalist volunteer and bluebird enthusiast. We met years ago when he first moved to Rochester and I was working at Wild Birds Unlimited. It's been fun spending time with him again on volunteer projects at Quarry Hill and Master Naturalist events.

Here's Lucille and her two children on the monarch quest. They ride over on their bikes every week, but Lucille admitted to me last week that she's enjoying this project much more than the kids are.

Every week, we fill out a checklist indicating what we find in the field. We tally each plant that's inspected and if eggs or caterpillars are found, that's also tallied. The caterpillars are also categorized by size: 1st, 2nd, 3rd, 4th, or 5th instar. Here on my clipboard is a lovely 5th instar I found during the monitoring. (This caterpillar went home with me, turned into a chrysalis the next day and I'm now waiting for it to emerge as a monarch butterfly.)

The first few weeks of monitoring in June were great -- the milkweed plants were taller than the surrounding grass and it was easy to get through the field. Now look at it! Some of the grasses and weeds are almost up to my chin! I have to be pretty careful bending over to inspect the milkweed plants lest I get poked in the eye or ear by some foxtails or wild parsnip.

As I've mentioned before, the low numbers of monarch eggs, larva and even butterflies has been disappointing. But there are plenty of other insect sightings in this field to keep things interesting. Lately I've been seeing lots of milkweed beetles doin' the "wild thing," but this is the only time I've ever seen this particular position........and I just couldn't resist taking a picture!

Looks pretty precarious to me, but I guess even beetles like a little variety!

I'm happy to report that my monarch butterfly tagging kit finally arrived in today's mail. My monarch ranch has at least one butterfly scheduled to emerge from its chrysalis early next week, and I hope to share a "how to tag a monarch butterfly" post with you then, so stay tuned!

Another Miscellaneous Monday

There's a special event coming up and you're invited to attend if you can answer "yes" to these 3 simple questions: 1) Do you enjoy birds and nature? 2) Do you live within 150 miles of St. Paul, Minnesota? 3) Are you free next Saturday (August 15th)?

Even if you don't blog, tweet or chirp, you can be a part of the "Birders Who Blog, Tweet and Chirp" birding event in the Twin Cities. Check out all the details here at Lynne's blog. And I want to personally invite my blog readers from the area (Stephen, Kathy, Jess, Val, Danielle, Barefoot Gardener, Deb, Mike, Toniya, Richard, Marsha, Brother Dave, and Cindy from Waterville). Long-range weather predictions are forecasting a perfect day for being outside and I would sure enjoy the chance to meet any (or all!) of you in person. Hope to see you next Saturday!


Here are just a few pictures that I've taken in the last few days that you might bring a smile to your face.

Here's silly Penny taking a nap -- does that look comfortable to you??


There, that's better and definitely looks more comfortable.

I believe Mr. Bunny Rabbit thought he wouldn't be noticed there between the peas and carrots! Unfortunately for him, my vantage point from the second story deck busted him in a second.

This is one of the baby chickadees that hatched in my yard earlier this summer. They're so demanding!

And here's backyard bird #46 for 2009. I know all you city dwellers with an over-abundance of pigeons will think I'm nuts, but I was pretty excited to spot this guy on the roof the other night. I guess there are enough barns and silos in the area that pigeons are actually rare in my backyard.

Oh, and one more thing before I forget......I finally got some inventory back on the shelves of my Etsy shop, so be sure and click on the sidebar link right below my profile to see what's new! (thanks!)

Have a good week everyone!

Survivor Stories

Today was the Fillmore County "Relay for Life" event down in my hometown. I found out last week that my dad was scheduled to speak at the Survivor's Tea and share his story. Here's Dad sharing a humorous anecdote about being a cancer survivor.

(BTW Dad, did you notice you had your survivor shirt on backwards or was that intentional?)

My brother Phil and his son Charlie were also in Minnesota this week for a visit, so Phil got to share his cancer survivor story also. It's probably one of the few times (if not the only time!) there's been a father/son presentation at this event.

Phil looks good doesn't he? It's hard to believe that only about 10 weeks ago he was in the Sutter Cancer Center in California having his bone marrow transplant.

After the tea, all of the cancer survivors were invited to take one of the balloons hanging from the ceiling in the presentation hall for a special balloon release celebration (that's what those white strings are hanging down by Dad and Phil's heads at the podium)

It was an overcast and drizzly afternoon, but the balloons didn't mind. What a pretty sight!

The actual relay part of this Relay for Life was scheduled to start around 6 PM with events for participants continuing until 6 AM tomorrow morning. As an additional fundraiser for the event, people could purchase luminarias in memory or in honor of a cancer survivor. Down this 2-block stretch of town, there were already 4 rows (thousands!) of luminarias already set up and I saw a cart carrying hundreds more still to be placed.

There's rain in the forecast for all of tonight, but I hope it holds off until they get all of these luminarias lit. It will be quite a spectacular thing to behold.

From all the people who spoke at this event, there were several common themes mentioned that helped them to become cancer survivors: Hope, Positive Attitude, Caring People, and Prayers. That's something each of us can provide (without cost) to any person we know who's battling cancer. Of course, the doctors and medical care are also an integral part to cancer survival, but without the hope, positive attitude, caring people and prayers, I don't believe my dad and brother would be standing here today sharing their survivor stories.

I thank all of you, dear blog readers, for your prayers during my brother's bone marrow transplant and recovery.

30 Days Are Done

My 30-day chemo cap challenge officially ended today. I started this project on July 8th and posted about it here. The question at that time was whether I could knit 30 hats in 30 days and the answer is: NO!

I made a valiant effort, but the circumstances of normal, daily home life and work interfered with my female super (knitting) powers. As you can see below, I knitted 24 hats (including that one I'm still working on in the picture and finished 20 minutes ago).

That's 80% of my 30 cap goal and I'm certainly satisfied with that. I dream of a day when a cure for cancer is discovered and there won't be any need at all for chemo caps. But in the meantime, I hope whoever gets one of my caps is comforted by the thought that someone hand-knitted a cap to keep their head warm and cover up the hair loss side-effect of their chemotherapy.

Now I'm going to get on with my normal life and work on finishing some of the other knitting projects that have been patiently laying around and waiting for me to finish knitting caps.

Ain't She Purty??

I had a nice surprise waiting for me in the monarch ranch when I got home from work this morning.......my first monarch butterfly for 2009 had arrived!

I ordered a tagging kit a couple weeks ago, but it hasn't arrived yet, so this pretty female monarch was released without a wing tag onto one of my backyard purple coneflowers.

Live long and prosper lovely monarch!

Another "First" for Me

A couple weeks ago we put the trail cameras up in our deer hunting area and we went down to check for pictures tonight after supper (no pictures--in case you're wondering). As we were walking along the edge of the cornfield and back to the truck, I happened to notice a strange green bump on a milkweed plant........can you see it??

Here's the "zoom" shot of a Cope's Gray Treefrog (green phase). How cute is that??

I think they're pretty abundant in Minnesota, but I've never seen one of these frogs before in my life. Be sure to click on the link above to learn more about them. They're quite the amazing little creature.

Fawns!!

Well, I had some photos ready for a nice boring post about wildflowers, rainbarrels and a dogbane beetle, when these spotted cuties showed up in the backyard around 8:00.

We've been watching the mom for weeks now (in fact, she was here again at 2:30 this afternoon), but she always comes by herself. A couple of the neighbors have seen these fawns -- even on our yard -- but this is the first time we've actually seen them with our own eyes.

This mineral block has been out since last fall and this is the first time we've seen a deer eating it!

Savor the cuteness!

A-ha! So that's who's been munching on my shrubs!

We've lived in this house for over 20 years and this is the first time we've seen fawns in the backyard. What a special treat.