DAILY PICTURES # 109

Yakmon, congrats on the Monarch babies. More adults coming your way on south bound north winds.Rains and cold north winds have been hitting here and when the sun pops out so do the chilled butterflies. They bask a little then head for the nearest flowers. Finally my Pineapple sage is blooming. The Cloudess and Sleepy Orange sulphurs love it. Even the mums are getting attention from skippers and a Painted lady. I still see lots of monarchs as they are flying with the breeze over head.
Late in the day I noticed several Variegated frit cats on the front yard passion vines and a big fat back ST cat on parsley.. Plenty of food and hopefully they will pupate before it gets really cold..

Domehomedee Sad about froggy ,, I use to keep a Chameleon Toad ,,I let it go one day , it chased flies around the evergreen , then came back to me ,, like hey , how about some with this here , like grab a fly for me ...

Yakmon , good going ,, I keep a few milk thistle , which aren't allowed here , Painted lady use them for egg and cocoon making ,
if it was necessary for food crops or something I would eliminate them , Since the Butterflies have been using them as adaptation , I don't agree with them being an illegal plant ,,


C_A_Ivy , Seems like the follow up Monarchs might make the counts different , Lots of slower migrators , Those early clouds of Monarchs looked like all ..
Nice pics also , More to look back at remembering this past season as it gets colder

Dome-Dee, so sorry about your pet frog. The painting is awesome, I thought it was a picture.
As for the Monarch that was having problems was probably not going to make it anyway, so don't fret. When I come across that I don't have a problem putting them out of their misery early. A healthy butterfly will drop down in seconds and hang. The wings are not wet when they emerge, only soft and limp at first. If you notice in the picture the body is really fat from taking in the green liquid inside it's chrysalis prior to emerging; allowing us to see the black and some orange. It immediately hangs where the wings can drop and then pumps that INSIDE the wings where it hardens. We shouldn't disturb them until they are crawling around the cage, they will fly out then nectar and rest. After all of that they deserve a rest!

Thanks Sheila,
I painted that picture of him so I could show people what they were looking for in the terrarium!
The little buggie didn't make it, but I put him out on a flower for a sip of nectar before he expired. Probably better than spending the end stuck half in his cocoon. I'm spending a few days in New Mexico with family, the weather has been great and I went out on a walk and picked up some native flower seeds.

I started a new thread here since we are over the 150 posts.
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