Butterfly and Wildlife Gardening And Photography In Houston Texas
Category Archives: Mexican Milkweed We have 18 Monarch Caterpillars, 9 are Chrysalises. We even found more Caterpillars on the outdoor Milkweed which was surprising since the temperature got down to 22F last week. Since the weather is supposed to be in the 60′s until the weekend, we are leaving the ones we found outside in the outdoor Butterfly enclosure….  It’s getting cold here in Houston. According to the latest weather reports I’ve seen, the temperature might get down to 22 degrees tonight. Although we’ve been keeping a few Monarch Caterpillars indoors, we’ve kept several outside, we just covered them up to provide some insulation. As we were covering our plants and pipes tonight, Leecy… I don’t have any pictures to share tonight but I thought I’d provide an update on our Butterfly Garden, particularly with the Monarchs. Strangely enough, we have quite a few Monarch Butterflies right now. We’ve been releasing 1-2 Monarchs per day for the last couple of weeks. In a way, this makes some sense. In…  This is a bit unexpected, but we have lots of Monarch Caterpillars, Chrysalises, and Eggs. Perhaps it’s because it’s December and it’s 80 degrees right now. We have 13 Chrysalises, eggs all over the outside Milkweed, and probably 10 Caterpillars. As we find the Caterpillars we bring them inside as the weather does occasionally get…  We’ve had a female Queen Butterfly around the last two days getting nectar from the Milkweed and Butterfly Bush Plants. I haven’t seen her lay any eggs yet. This is Leecy’s favorite Butterfly. We’ve also had a female Monarch in the garden and she and the Queen try and chase each other away from the…  I’ve fallen in love! I’m renting my ultimate dream lens, the Canon 500mm f/4. This lens is stunning. I received the lens today mid-morning couldn’t wait to test it out on my Canon 7D. I had just walked out in the backyard noticed a Squirrel. Good enough for me. Then I hear the unmistakable sound…  Here’s a rare Butterfly for the Houston area. It’s a White Striped Longtail. Here’s where it gets interesting. In my Butterflies of Houston and Southeast Texas book, it lists the name of this species as Chioides Catillus, but looking at that name on the Butterflies and Moths of North America has these species as very…  The Milkweed around the yard has been a popular place for all kinds of Butterflies the last few days. All of our Milkweed has lots of flowers right now, so I’m sure that’s part of the appeal. The majority of the Milkweed is also in the direct sun so it’s a convenient place to warm…  Poor Butterflies. Today was a beautiful day, but it was a little chilly for Butterflies. I literally saw two Monarchs drop out of the sky. These poor Butterflies were doing all they could to warm up in the sun, but the high was only 68 degrees. They’d be flying around, then that cold North wind…  We still had quite a few Butterflies today, but a few less Monarchs than yesterday. The Butterflies that were really abundant today were the Gulf Fritillaries. The Mexican Milkweed appeared to be a popular gathering place for both the Monarchs and the Fritillaries. Sometimes the Fritillaries and Monarchs would share the Milkweed, other times they…  The Monarch Butterflies were migrating through Houston today, just as I predicted 4 days ago (http://www.butterfliesandwildlife.com/2010/10/25/monarch-migration-prediction-for-texas/). For what it’s worth, I’m predicting that we (folks in Texas and Houston specifically) will continue to see our largest number of migrating Monarchs through Saturday, October 30. Sunday and Monday the wind will be blowing from the South,…  Hi this is Leecy. I did all the work and took all the photos today so he wanted me to write my story. L called me today at work today and said that the chrysalis in the house probably will hatch today, so check it when I got home. So, when I got home, I…  I finally got around to taking some pictures of our Custom Butterfly Enclosure and the Monarch Caterpillars and Chrysalises that are inside. We put some of the Monarch Caterpillars in this enclosure for a couple of reasons. One, is to protect them from predators like Wasps. The other reason is to rotate the Milkweed. So…  The Fall 2010 Monarch Migration appears to be getting stronger in my backyard. My best guess is we have about 10 Chrysalises, and 35 Caterpillars. I’m also finding more and more eggs on the Milkweed. So far we have tagged 9 wild Monarchs, 6 females and 3 males. On of the males I spotted today…  We tagged our sixth Monarch today. She was a female and was tagged with number NGC 405. She didn’t appear until late afternoon, and spent the rest of the evening drinking from the Milkweed and laying some eggs. Most of the other Monarchs we have seen have just hung around for a couple of hours,… |
|