Helping Monarchs - Part 1

In my last post, 'Butterfly Ballet', I took a lighthearted look at the Monarch butterflies in my garden.  Now, I'll take a more somber look at their situation.  Monarchs are in trouble.  Their numbers have declined dramatically in recent years-- due to reduced habitat for the host plant of their caterpillar stage, pesticides, parasites, and other causes.  

It sounds grim, I know.  But, on the bright side, there are lots of people who are helping them, too!

From the federal government to grassroots supporters, people are coming to the aid of Monarchs.

In this article I cut from a newspaper last year, it states that Monarchs had experienced a 90% decline in population, with the lowest recorded numbers occurring in 2013-14.  The US Fish and Wildlife Service was considering putting them on the endangered species list.  Just like when our Eastern Bluebirds were in serious trouble, people are stepping up to help.

I picked up the brochure in the photo above at the Wetlands Institute in Stone Harbor, NJ.  They have a large butterfly garden out in front of their building, and inside they have this:

As they find eggs or caterpillars on their milkweed plants, they bring them inside to protect and raise, then they tag and release them.  

I'm not going to go into the details of the Monarch life cycle, but if you'd like to read about it at one of the best websites I've seen, you can click here.

Now, I want to tell you about my own Monarch story.  Our family has loved them for a long time.  When my girls were young, they enjoyed raising a caterpillar or two and releasing the butterflies after they emerged from their chrysalises.

There's a butterfly / dolphin enthusiast!

And a nice handling method!

I had not raised any caterpillars for long time, preferring to let nature take its course.  This year I changed my mind - because Monarchs are in trouble and particularly because some of ours were in trouble!

While my husband had done a good deed for me and staked off the best of our local milkweed colony, there were still milkweeds scattered here and there in the hayfields which were destined to be mowed for mushroom hay.

Thank you, honey.

So, I kept checking and found several Monarch caterpillars in the 'danger zone'.  

The easiest way to find them is to look for chewed leaves or frass (a fancy way of saying caterpillar poo).

You could also find eggs, but they are very tiny so you'd have to look carefully.  The 'cats' can vary in size, depending on which 'instar' they are in (they go thru 5).

I brought them back and set them up in a special habitat... basically providing them with milkweed to eat and keeping the container clean.

They will eventually look for a place to pupate and attach themselves by a silken mat.  In the next photo, you can see the one on the right working on this, and the other one already in the pupa stage.

Then, the 'cat' will hang in what is called the "J position" for awhile.

Here's another viewpoint:

I was really glad I brought these caterpillars in, because before all the above took place, this happened...

Those caterpillars were on milkweed that was right in the front and center of that photo!

If you are interested in learning more about how you can help Monarchs, here is a link to the Fish and Wildlife Service webpage that has lots of information.  There are also several Facebook groups; where those 'grassroots' people I wrote about earlier share information on raising and helping Monarchs.

While I was not lucky enough to see a caterpillar go into a pupa... I did get to watch one emerge as a butterfly! Of course, I took lots of photos to share with you...  so 'stay-tuned' for my next post!

PS - If you want some Common Milkweed seed to grow your own Monarch garden, let me know... we have lots!

 Though I'll have to harvest some before it all flies away!

Butterfly Ballet

Today's post is provided solely for your enjoyment.  To me, it would be hard to come up with a better physical example of 'joy' than a butterfly.  So, today, if you are needing a 'lift', I hope you will find one here.

A secondary title for this post could be, "If you plant zinnias, they will come".   (Or perhaps, "I spent a lot of time in my garden taking these photos and I need to justify that it wasn't wasted"!)

Now, on to the "Butterfly Ballet".

First, a brief introduction.  The main characters are Monarch butterflies, with cameo appearances by a couple of other butterflies and a bee.  The plot... well, there really isn't one!  The music in the background (you will have to use your imagination, but think of gently rustling leaves in the distance and a slightly louder, occasional buzzing of bees.  The temperature is pleasant and the sun is warm on our backs.

Now, sit back, relax, and enjoy the show... (cue music)

The action begins with the overture-- five ballerinas were in the garden but I only managed to capture three together in photos.  Not sure which is the prima ballerina...perhaps this one?

She does have a lovely way of moving.

The next dance is a pas de duex.  These two start out surrounded by flowers, and then do a little showing off on the top of two nearby zinnias.

 Now, there seems to be a little tension in the garden...

Who does this fritillary think she is?

But our prima dona is not disturbed and keeps right on doing what she is doing!

The fritillary flies off to find her own flower, and all is well again.

 At least for the moment!!!

Dunt, dunt, dunt... DA...

Phew, that was a close call.  Mr. Bumble also went on about his business of pollination.

Now, it's time for the solo dance of our prima ballerina. Wait, who is THAT to the right of our star?

A lovely female Black Swallowtail joins in the dance!

There are enough flowers for everyone.

The End.

Now is usually the time for the curtain call, but butterflies are actually somewhat shy.  The best I could do was get this one to come in for a landing.

Now, our cast is all off doing what butterflies do best... flying away!

 

Swallows at Stone Harbor

Birds of a feather really do flock together.

 Our family recently spent a few days in Stone Harbor, NJ.    We enjoyed our time together-- swimming in the ocean and having fun on the beach (you are never too old to build your first sand castle or surf the waves as a couple of our group did!).  I enjoyed all that (though I've been to the beach many times), but I have to say one of the most awesome things at the beach were the tree swallows!

There were hundreds... thousands... and they were amazing to watch!

If you look carefully in the sky in the photo above, you can see them all the way across the width of the photo.

It was really neat to see them, because I've been missing our swallows at home.  We have both tree swallows and barn swallows that make their summer homes in our area but they had left already.

They arrive at our place in the beginning of April (the last two years it was April 3rd).  Tree swallows typically use several of our nesting boxes and they also nest in natural tree cavities.  Once they have raised their families, they don't stay around long though.  Now I know where they may have gone...

I like to think some of our own tree swallows might have been in this huge flock at Stone Harbor!

It is one of those things where it was truly awesome to see in person, but probably doesn't look quite as impressive in photos.  But I'm going to share some more photos with you anyway!

They would stream along thru the sky, first in one direction and then the other.

Every little while they would land in the bushes in the sand dunes.

That's the ocean you can see in the background.

Or on the electric lines in the town.

Then a person would walk by, or they would just decide it was time to fly again, and an amazing number would rise up.

It was really cool!!!

How about a straight up view?

a little closer...

Isn't the pattern they make neat?

I guess you can tell I was fascinated by them.  I think they were all tree swallows, although I did see two barn swallows (or at least some kind of swallows with color on their breasts... I didn't have my binoculars at the time) while I was walking on the beach.

We discussed how many there might have been, but really, I have no idea.  I looked on eBird.  Some people reported an X for their data at a location just south of where we were.  The X basically means they couldn't count them and I would agree!  One person at this location guessed at 1500. (These are all tree swallows).

I'd like to talk to Herschel Gomez, who, as you can see in this next screenshot, listed 672... to see how he arrived at that number.

We saw the tree swallows in Stone Harbor for a couple of days.  One morning I watched them come rising up out of the dunes, where they must have spent the night.  On our last day, they were gone.  Maybe they had eaten all the insects that were to be had in the air of Stone Harbor.  Though tree swallows will eat the fruits of waxmyrtle and babyberry bushes, I did not observe any of them doing that.  If you would like to read more about tree swallows and their migration, I highly recommend this website, which has lots of interesting information.
Just a note about eBird, as well.  Did you know that anyone can use it to look up data?  If you click on this link, you can 'explore data' by location or species.  That's how I found the info above as well as these maps.

The screenshot above shows the Stone Harbor area, with the tree swallow sighting locations.  Here's one from just farther south in one of the birding capitals of the USA... Cape May.

Next is something almost totally unrelated, except for the fact that I think it is also cool.  I love to look at maps online.  You can explore the world that way without leaving home (for instance, 'travel' through the Panama Canal!).  I found these 'trees' along the coast near Charleston SC.

Perhaps the tree swallows will spend sometime there on their way south!

Good bye, tree swallows... until next year.