Dr. Phil's Dreamwidth Journal

More Photo Wandering

Two weeks ago I shot some thistles by the driveway (DW).


They're all grown up now. (Click on photo for larger.)

On Friday I had errands to do in Holland MI and finished by getting some tomatoes at Potters. But the sign also said they had raspberries. Still? Apparently yes, because as I was selecting the tomatoes a breeze wafted by and I could smell them. They had some dark red autumn raspberries, but also some freshly picked summer ones -- the ones with the fragrant bouquet and near perfect soft, fluffy plumpness.

Despite the losses of many crops and a lot of the tree fruit, we have managed to get some good produce -- even some decent Flaming Fury peaches. And lovely tomatoes.


So on Saturday I saw these big crates of butternut squash in the fields on 84th Avenue. (Click on photo for larger.)

The Old Monarchs Home

We've raised a few monarch butterflies this season, and after a slow start we actually found a few caterpillars and eggs. Yesterday Mrs. Dr. Phil realized there were holes in some leaves of what she thought was a jar that didn't take -- little bugger had gone into hiding until it was nearly half an inch! Today she released another big male at work and there should be another butterfly tomorrow.

The last couple of weeks I've seen some monarchs fluttering through our milkweed stand, but until this Saturday they haven't lingered long enough to shoot. Pretty much all my butterfly photos the last two years have been our releases. As I drove down the driveway I saw one monarch, but it flew away. But when I came back from town, I paused by the milkweed to look for signs of caterpillars. When one monarch lit on a plant, it stayed around long enough to swap lenses on the D1 and then shoot through the weeds.


Could be a male. And is that left wing damaged? (Click on photo for larger.)


Second shot after it drifted down into the shade. The wings look tired and dried up. Shouldn't be a surprise, especially given the heat, but I've just rarely ever seen old butterflies. (Click on photo for larger.)

Heavy weighs the crown of the old monarch as the dog days of August wane. (grin)

Dr. Phil

On The 26th

Friday a week ago we were driving around Lake Michigan from Allendale to Milwaukee. Decided that since it was a beautiful blue sky warm summer day, that we'd take Lake Shore Drive to Sheridan Road and drive by the campus of Northwestern University. Ten days before we'd released the first of our Monarch butterflies for the year -- and we had a cooler with a couple of chrysalises.

Before we left NU we discovered that one of our butterflies had emerged.

It'd been out long enough that its wings were inflated and dried

So it was time to let it go free

It's a girl! (click on image for larger)


Mrs. Dr. Phil placed it on a tree

And we let it be.

Dr. Phil

Posted on Dreamwidth
Crossposted on LiveJournal

No, Our Lawn Isn't A Mess -- It's Deliberate

We haven't mowed our lawn in a number of years. Laziness? Oh, perhaps. But a lot of it has to do with the fact that we live in the country and if we let it go, then we get milkweed plants. And milkweed brings monarch butterflies. And we can bring the caterpillars in and raise them in jars and increase the odds that they'll mature to butterflies.

So we're raising monarch butterflies. Or at least that's what we tell people.

Alas, Slim Pickings

The last two years have been poor for monarch caterpillars, though. We think it was because the shrubbery farm to our west dug themselves up, planted corn for a year, then started over. That corn year involved enough pesticides that we noticed, along with our one neighbor, a real shortage of monarchs around here.

I know we got at least one, maybe two monarchs raised last year. This year? We've seen the butterflies, but it wasn't until Sundaythe 8th that we spotted a honking big 'un on one of the milkweeds just outside one of the kitty room windows:


The Queen of Monarchs

This weekend Pat, Mrs. Dr. Phil's stepmom, is visiting us. She's the one who got us started on monarchs -- so far this year she's started 490+, with about a 16 percent failure rate. And since she's got all these hungry, hungry little caterpillars, she shows up with a cooler filled with jars and ziplock baggies. Last night she did some sorting and repacking:


Of course she's picking leaves to feed her brood and keeps finding more. (grin)

Here are some of the more advanced ones:


Three became butterflies today -- I didn't get a shot of them in their jars and wasn't around when they were released. But life goes on. And monarchs continue.

Dr. Phil