Today I saw two Monarch Butterflies that were feeding on the wildflowers and the Family Jewels Milkweed.

Those two black insects at the top of the photo are affectionately called “Love Bugs” and they are a big pain (just because they fly right into you, not that they cause any real damage).  I’m sure the insect predators love them.

Monarch Feeding On Family Jewels Milkweed

The picture below is from my wildflower garden.  I’ve essentially just let it grow wild this year and it has done fantastic.  The Butterflies love it, the Hummingbird loves it, and I’m sure some of the birds love it as well

Gulf Fritillary On Yellow Flower

When I see these Monarchs from Mexico I have mixed feelings.  On the one hand, I always enjoy seeing them, and happy to know that they have survived for so long.  The sad part is I know these Butterflies are nearing the end of their life after an incredible journey.

First Female Monarch From Mexico 2012

Female Monarch From Mexico Laying Eggs On Family Jewels Milkweed

For the first time this year, I saw an Eastern Black Swallowtail and she was laying eggs on the Fennel.  We never cook with Fennel, we just let it grow however it wants in our garden.  The result is that we have 2 huge stalks (is that the correct word?) of Fennel, which I guess if you are an Eastern Black Swallowtail, looks like a perfect place to lay a few hundred eggs.

First Eastern Black Swallowtail Of 2012 Laying Eggs

I had forgotten how our Maple Tree is a source of nectar for Butterflies and Honeybees until I saw this Monarch feeding from one of the new blooms.  I say new blooms, but at the same time the Maple Tree is still shedding leaves for the Winter.  Only in Texas….:-).

Monarch Butterfly Getting Nectar From Maple Tree 2012

This is one of the best Butterfly movies I have seen.  The incredible detail in the video is fantastic!  It is also very educational.  One of the main reasons I purchased this movie is because I had read where they do an MRI on a Monarch Chrysalis.  It was for that reason alone that I purchased it.

Where I have a major criticism of this movie is when it gets into evolution versus intelligent design.  I’m assuming most folks know about evolution, but maybe not so much on intelligent design.  Here’s a link to the Wikipedia definition so you can read about it yourself.  What I wish they would have done is just present the science and factual parts about the Butterfly and not become involved in the whole evolution versus intelligent design argument.  To me that detracts from the actual beauty and incredible photography of the video and of Butterflies in general. I didn’t buy the video to become convinced of evolution or intelligent design, I bought it to learn about Butterflies and I found it unfortunate that towards the end of the movie it tries to make an argument in one particular direction (I won’t spoil it for you).

So, I’d give this movie 4 out of 5 Butterfly wings for the cinematography and factual information.  It loses a Butterfly wing (or two) for introducing intelligent design version evolution.

Just to close this post, this was a Butterfly that had hatched a couple of days ago and was still sitting in the Fennel where we placed it the previous evening.  It is heavily cropped, but I thought it was kind of neat how the Butterfly was covered in early morning dew.

** Sorry I need to say a little more on this movie.  I feel like I was politically sucker-punched.  There was no reason to introduce these different agendas for folks who were simply hoping to come see an educational movie about butterflies.  Suggesting the butterfly wings are beautiful not for evolutionary reasons so it must be some intelligent entity design is attempting to enforce a political agenda. which I found quite unfortunate that they decided to go that route.

Monarch Butterfly Covered In Dew

About Monarch Butterflies.  We’ve released over 20 Butterflies in the last two days.  We brought many of the Chrysalises indoors during the last cold spell (cold for Houston, not cold for anywhere else in the U.S.) and they have really flourished.  I’ve also been helping out someone I recently met by doing some testing for the OE (ophryocystis elektroscirrha) parasite.

Without further adieu, here’s a few pictures using the new lens and of the first Monarchs of 2012.

Monarch Caterpillar Eating Milkweed In Early Morning Dew

Recently Tested Monarch On Tree

Multiple Monarchs Drying Their Wings After Hatching

First Monarch Of 2012 Drying Wings In The Sun

Below is a video that I recorded today of Leecy gluing some Monarch Chrysalises to a piece of cardboard.  We tend to do this during Winter months when we still have Caterpillars and Chrysalises and want to protect them from inclement weather (rainy, cold).

To give you a brief verbal summary:  We try and keep the Monarch Caterpillars outside as much as possible unless the temperature is expected to be a little chilly or we are going to have excessive rain.  We’ll gently detach the Monarch Chrysalis from the outdoor enclosure, then bring it inside.  From there, we (Leecy) uses a glue gun to glue the tip of the Chrysalis to a piece of cardboard so that it can continue to develop.  We then flip the cardboard upside down and place it over a container.

Let me know if you have any questions and I’ll do my best to answer.

By the way, we have about 36 Monarch Butterfly Chrysalises right now (December 23, 2011)

So on to this post.  I’m guessing that most folks don’t think about Butterflies two days before Christmas, but I wanted to share our Monarch Butterfly story.

While we didn’t see many Monarch Butterflies during the migration, we saw several after the expected migration, and we had quite a bit of Milkweed.  The result?

Lots of Monarch Butterfly Chrysalises!

Carrier Full Of Monarch Chrysalises

We’ve only had a couple of really cold days in Houston (we moved the Milkweed to the garage during that time) with the majority of the Winter being quite nice.  Apparently the Monarch Caterpillars like it as well as it’s given them some time to stock up on eating Milkweed.  Since we knew it was supposed to get a little cold and rainy (just 38 degrees or so), we decided to bring the Chrysalises indoors.  The result is what you see above.  Those black dots next to a couple of the Chrysalises are the skin of the Caterpillars.

We don’t just leave them in this little carrier, Leecy glues them to these cardboard things we have.  I’ll try and post a picture or video of that within the next couple of days so you can see how we do that.  Once the Butterfly emerges we release them as long as it’s reasonably sunny and above 50 degrees Fahrenheit.

Pretty neat huh?

When I first got to Skillern the first creatures to greet me were the mosquitoes, big ones and lots of them.  Fortunately I brought the mosquito repellant so they didn’t overwhelm me.  As I walked along one of the trails there was this pretty little bird darting up and down from a tall tree.  It was a female Vermillion Flycatcher.  I love these little birds!

Female Vermillion Flycatcher Side View

Female Vermillion Flycatcher Front View

There were also lots of Northern Harriers and these birds are fun for me to photograph.  Since they float above their potential prey, it gave me a good opportunity to get some decent photographs.

Northern Harrier About To Land In Field

Northern Harrier Hovering Over A Possible Meal

At Skillern there were lots of open fields, and I’m sure I missed a tons of birds.  One bird that I’ve never photographed before was an Eastern Meadowlark hiding in the field.

Eastern Meadowlark In Field

In addition I saw lots of Savannah Sparrows.

Savannah Sparrow In Field Of Brown

Savannah Sparrow Resting On Branch In Field

A particular noisy little bird that I saw hiding in the woods was a Winter Wren.

Winter Wren Hiding In The Woods

These are just a few of the many, many birds I saw at Skillern.  I took alot of bad photographs, and missed many opportunities.

Birds weren’t the only creatures I saw.  There were lots of Gulf Fritillary Butterflies (that surprised me) and a few Monarch Butterflies.  I was really surprised by how bright the color was on the Gulf Fritillaries.

Very Bright Orange Gulf Fritillary At Skillern Tract

I called Leecy a few hours into my trip and she said she wanted to see a picture of an Alligator.  I was lucky enough to find one sunning on the shore.

Alligator At Skillern Tract In Anahuac

I really, really enjoyed Skillern Tract of the Anahuac National Wildlife Refuge and plan on returning once they weather cools down a bit.  You absolutely have to bring mosquito repellant otherwise you will be eaten alive.  Even though I was well coated at the beginning, apparently the stuff wears off because I was attacked later on.  I re-coated myself and all was well.

I’m assuming this one is a male since it made no attempt to visit the Passion Vine and instead spent its time eating nectar from Lantana and Zinnia.

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Purple Flower

Gulf Fritillary Feeding On Orange Zinnia

What I’ve also noticed is that these Butterflies are mating, and in the case of other males, chasing each other.

Monarch With With Wings Spread Wide In Early Morning Sun

Clean Monarch Butterfly Feeding On Red Zinnia

We’ve also located several (around 15 at last count) Monarch Caterpillars on the Milkweed.  The two guys are the picture below were so tiny I almost didn’t see them.  It’s been like this for several days; we check the Milkweed for Caterpillars, see none, and assume there are none.  Two days later, we see little Caterpillars like these.

Two Tiny Monarch Caterpillars Feeding Off Same Leaf

There are also several large Caterpillars on the Milkweed.  I brought them inside for one day since it was a little chilly, then took them back outside the next day since the weather has been really nice.

Large Monarch Caterpillar Upside Down In Between Two Milkweed Stems

Take a look at the male Monarch in the picture below.  He has that torn upper wing and had difficulty flying from flower to flower.

Male Monarch With Torn Wing On Pink Zinnia

Then the next day he was back flying over the Zinnias and battling other males.  I can’t imagine this guy would ever make it to Mexico, but what do I know.

Male Monarch With Torn Wing On Orange Zinnia

The male in the pictures above wasn’t the most damaged Monarch that came to visit.  Check out this one on the pink Zinnia.  It’s missing a whole bunch of different parts of both wings, but that’s not the worst.

Tattered Monarch On Pink Zinnia

Have a look at this poor thing when it has its wings spread.  Look the male in the previous photographs, I can’t imagine this Monarch making it all the way to Mexico in this condition.

Very Tattered Monarch With Wings Spread On Pink Zinnia

It’s not all bad news.  We did have some “newer” looking Monarchs appear as well.  This male appeared later in the afternoon.  He was drawn to this red Zinnia that has a little bit of Maggie’s (our Golden Retriever) hair in the middle.  We also counted 15 Monarch caterpillars on the different Milkweed plants throughout the backyard.  We’re letting them stay outdoors since the weather has been so nice.

Monarch On Red Zinnia With Dog Hair In Middle

One last thing and I’d like to hear thoughts from others that tag Monarchs.  The last few days I’ve decided not to tag Monarchs.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  One, some of these Monarchs are so torn up I didn’t want to even attempt to try and attach a sticker to their wing.  The second reason (and this is the part I’m curious on what others have to say) is that it seems tagging these Monarchs causes them a little stress.  We’ve noticed that in many of the Monarchs we tag don’t come back to the yard after we tag them.  The ones we don’t tag frequent the yard for a few days.  I’m thinking that as much as these Monarchs need nectar for their flight to Mexico (especially this year), I don’t want to stress them out and have them struggle to find other nectar sources when I have so much in my yard.

What do you think?  Have you observed Monarchs being stressed from tagging?  How do you think it affects them?