Meet Casper.
He was our caterpillar. Till he disappeared.
Hopefully he ate his fill and is off somewhere spinning himself into a chrysalis.
Last time I saw him he did look a bit of a blimp and he certainly chomped a lot of milkweed.
So maybe one day he will re-appear in Monarch butterfly form.
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Like the Pushmi-Pullu in Dr Doolittle, it’s hard to tell one end from the other.
Unless he’s actively eating or pooping.
We captured these photographs on our trail-cam last September. We were new to the whole Monarch Butterfly preservation plan, but obviously we were keen to support it in any way we could.
The few feeble milkweed that we discovered in a front flower bed flourished. Last year we saw no flowers and in the Fall I simply cut the stalks down. This year we have a forest that bloomed, and now we have huge seed pods, so I can only imagine what will happen next year!
It is maybe too early yet to see many butterflies, but I do hope Casper was just an early ambassador for his kind and that we will see many more.
In the meantime:
Some stale cheerios that I offered to any takers, to my surprise, brought us a Red-spotted Admiral.
Isn’t he lovely?
Speaking of lovely, we have had quite a few visits to our feeders:
We are so pleased this year to be seeing goldfinches as well as the grosbeaks. They have all had a successful breeding season. This cardinal is a male fledgling. Just finding his way in the World.
We wish them all the best of luck, especially those that will be leaving for the great migration. I feel amazingly protective of the poor fragile creatures.