Critters

Our good friend Dick has recently become fascinated with monarch butterflies and their plight. Modern farming methods and the insistence of local governments for keeping ditches mowed have significantly reduced the growth of milkweed plants, which are a necessary food source for the monarch caterpillars. Monarchs are now around in only small numbers as compared to years gone by. Dick joined an organization that is making efforts to provide education about monarchs, increase milkweed growth, and nurture the growth of monarchs.

When he and Rina came to visit us this past week, Dick brought along some caterpillars that needed attention. So it was fascinating for all of us who were here to learn more and to see some of the stages of monarch growth. Here is one of the caterpillars chomping away on some milkweed. (Yep, that's caterpillar poop at the bottom of the photo. These guys turn milkweed into poop.)

All but one of the caterpillars he brought along eventually crawled up to the top of their boxes and formed into a chrysalis like the one you see here. They did this amazingly rapidly (a few hours), and then they hung quietly as the magic inside occurred. You can see here a time lapse of the conversion from caterpillar to chrysalis.

Being the photographer and scientist that he is, Dick was taking lots of pictures to record the progress of his own caterpillars. Alas, we didn't get to see one emerge as a monarch butterfly before they had to go home. We all were hoping to see a butterfly release, but that will have to happen another time. Until then, here is a time lapse of an emerging monarch that I found on YouTube.

The other critter event was finding two of these little tree frogs under the lid of our hot tub. They evidently decided that the humidity there was just right. Alas, one had fallen into the hot water and was struggling to get back out. I assisted him and relocated both of them to the woods, neither one seeming to have been harmed.