Monarch back

[tigertoy]

I was up a little too late last night, and I didn't sleep well, so I got up a little late and I was feeling down as I took my morning walk. But Nature provided me a pick-me-up.

I saw the first Monarch butterfly of the season.

*does happy dance*

Comments

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

I saw a couple of them on my walk through the woods while I was in Illinis for Duckcon. There were some lovely stands of milkweed out there and I did find a few eggs on them. It has been very cool out here and I have not seen any monarchs around here yet. The milkweed my mom has planted in her butterfly garden has been thus far untouched. In fact, there haven't been many butterflies around at all, save a few white cabbage butterflies and a few tiger swallowtails further north, but apart from that they've been pretty scarce.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

There are lots of milkweeds near my house that I walk by daily, and this is the first monarch that has registered on my consciousness. I haven't seen any eggs or caterpillars either.

There's a pretty good number of other butterflies around my house, and lots of swallowtails at EFRC.

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

Yeah, we get tiger and zebra swallowtails, here. I have found Giant Swallowtail caterpillars in he dill and the parsley. Mourning cloaks are a dime a dozen and quite a selection of moths. Very rarely do we get the big ones like sphynx or giant silk moths, but they do show up here frm time to time. They are much more plentiful further east where lunas and cecropias are common. We have mostly the smaller moths like the Tent caterpillar moths and such. You know, bat fodder.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen a cecropia in years, and I've never seen a luna, though they're supposed to be around.

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

With all the deciduous forest you have down there, I am sure you must have giant silks down there. I think luna moths are not that fond of urban areas, so I would reckon you'd have a few of them out where you are. The last cecropia I saw was sitting on the sid eof my parents' house, and it wasn't long before a grackle caught site of it and that was pretty much game over. I once found a luna moth on the road when I was living in Kenora. It was a cool day, and it was pretty sluggish. So, I wore it like a broach until it warmed up and flew off.

[tigertoy.livejournal.com]

I think lunas are very rare here; cecropias are a bit commoner. I don't know how to look for them, which probably doesn't help.

[musicmutt.livejournal.com]

I think like most other moths if you are out at night and find a strong light source, they can't resist flying circles around it. I found a rather large flock of them, lunas and cecropias, that way sround Sprague, Manitoba once.