First sighting

The first Monarch butterfly of the season was flitting around on the butterfly weed.  Very appropriate.

 

Ready to fly

This milkweed looked very orderly.  

 

Milkweed

I've been babying a patch of common milkweed that I started from seed a few years ago.  No, this picture is not from my patch.  Mine has become food for rabbits.  I thought milkweed was poisonous and rabbits wouldn't touch it.  Not so.  It has been reduced to a few leafless sticks.

 

Milkweed

There is a movement to plant butterfly friendly native plants.  I see butterfly milkweed blooming everywhere.  So far lots of bees but no butterflies.

 

Invaders vs invasive

Suddenly, I'm seeing these beautiful bugs on my butterfly milkweed.  They're everywhere on it, crawling all over the seedpods I've been watching, hoping for seeds to extend my milkweed patch.  It turns out they're Milkweed bugs (see here).  They don't hurt the plant.  They don't damage any monarch eggs.  Their sole purpose is to destroy the seeds of the milkweed.  In nature, that keeps the potentially invasive milkweed seeds from spreading everywhere.  I hope they leave enough for me.

Butterfly garden

The butterfly garden milkweeds are buzzing with bees. But no butterflies today.

 

Butterfly weed

It seems cruel to call this a weed when I've tried so hard to grow it.  It's a form of milkweed and supposed to be an important plant for monarch butterflies.  They lay their eggs only on milkweed and the caterpillars only eat milkweed.  Now I only have to wait for a monarch to find my little colony.

 

Monarch waystation

Monarch butterflies are endangered, but not on the endangered species list, (go figure).  But more and more I'm seeing areas with native plants, especially milkweed.  Maybe even without government support we can save these creatures.

 

Busy Bees

The bees were busy in the milkweed.

No butterflies in sight though.

Milkweed for Monarchs

The milkweed was growing well at the Prairie Ridge Eco station.  There were lots of butterflies, but it took us a long time to find the queen of all.

We finally found one monarch. I hope she lays some eggs on all the milkweed waiting for her.

Let it go

The milkweed is beginning to fly!

Milkweed caterpillars

We looked on the backside of milkweed leaves looking for monarch caterpillars.  Instead we found these: Milkweed tussock moth caterpillars.  (see here) They look like those little furry dogs.

Bug's life

This carpenter bee shared a milkweed flower with a shiny beetle.  The insects were everywhere on a sunny hot day.

Wildflower

I can't find much information on this flower.  They've just started blooming in September.