Monarch Update: Buddy Nectar Photos

Here are some photos from my 'real' camera!

First is a series of our first caterpillar, Buddy Nectar, from tiny caterpillar to butterfly!

Just before emerging, you can see the wings very clearly through the chrysalis.

Drying and extending the wings

Buddy the Butterfly!

Hanging out in the garden before flying off!

Monarch update #4 - August 2019

August was a month of metamorphosis!

We came home from a quick weekend trip on August 4 and had a chrysalis and one more caterpillar was up on the top of the butterfly tent soon after.

By August 8th, this was the scene:

I let our littlest caterpillar (who was a surprise birth while we were gone) live in the windowsill free range for a bit until his poops got too big (lol) and needed more containment.

On August 11th, we officially had three chrysalises:

By August 14th we had FOUR chrysalises (Buddy, Straight Line, Cars, and Rock and Roll) and Speeder was getting ready!

August 18th was a BIG DAY!  Buddy Nectar emerged as a butterfly!!  I have to pull a few photos off of the SD card in my 'real' camera, so stay tuned for a butterfly post coming probably tomorrow.  Here are a few pictures, though.  First is Buddy in his/her chrysalis about 20 minutes prior to emerging.  The second is of Buddy just after emerging with wings still pretty folded up.  I never got a good look at the wings to determine sex so we aren't sure if Buddy turned out to be male or female.  Oh well!

Four days later, on August 22nd, Straight Line and Cars emerged from their chrysalises as well.

Here's a picture of Cars before taking off:

We also adopted a seventh caterpillar on Aug 25th.  He's a late bloomer and was in a field that I worried might be mowed soon as we approach the cooler temps here in VT.  We've named him Nectarine as a tribute to Buddy Nectar.  On Monday 9/1 he was hanging in J formation from a leaf of milkweed in our butterfly tent!  So cool.  Pics to come.

Nectarine as a little caterpillar on 8/25

Nectarine on 8/31

Monarch update #3

Where to begin??

Buddy Nectar is in his chrysalis!!  Here are a few pictures.  He went into J formation on the evening of 8/1 (my birthday!) and took a while, but we had a chrysalis in progress when we left to go out of town Saturday 8/3.

Buddy in his J formation

Buddy Nectar in his chrysalis

We came home and three of our other caterpillars have grown A LOT.  We have one more who has traveled up to the top of the cage and I believe he'll be in J formation when we get home today.

"Cars", "Straight Line", and "Rock and Roll"

We also came home to a surprise last Sunday evening: a sixth caterpillar hatched while we were gone!!! I had no idea we had an egg in our cage.  He has been named "Bubbles".

It's getting REAL!

Monarch Update #2

Here are a few photo updates from this week:

Buddy Nectar on 7/28

Buddy Nectar on July 30th

You can see that our first caterpillar, Buddy Nectar, has grown SIGNIFICANTLY over the past few days.  I'm hoping we'll see a chrysalis by the weekend based on how much he grows each day.

We also have added a couple of new guys in the mix:

Monarch Update #1

So much has happened!

We now have three caterpillars in our house.  Our original caterpillar is named 'Buddy Nectar' and has grown A LOT!  We also found one in a lot that looks like it might be undergoing some sort of construction soon, and one along our walk last night that was on a plant in danger of being mowed soon (the mower was already parked in preparation!).  All three are different sizes and as I have now learned... are in different stages of growth which are called instars.

Photo from journeynorth.org

Here's a rundown of the stages our caterpillars are in currently:

1. Buddy Nectar: Currently in his 3rd instar, I think he may be getting ready to shed his exoskeleton and enter the 4th instar, so stay tuned for our next update!
2.  Caterpillar #2 (found in Silo parking lot): 2nd instar
3. Caterpillar #3 (found last night on our walk): 1st instar

We have upgraded our housing situation with a proper butterfly tent, but may need to get another one (or two) so that we have room for everyone.  

We'll try to get photos of all the caterpillars for our next update!

Also - fun fact:  caterpillars poop a lot!  WHO KNEW????

We're raising a monarch!

Oh my, oh my.  IT IS HAPPENING.

We found a monarch egg and are raising it to a butterfly! 

I began monitoring an egg outside on a nearby milkweed plant on Sunday July 21st.  I googled (of course) to confirm as best that I could and checked on it each day. 

We came home from summer camp last night and IT HAD HATCHED!!

We carefully snipped off the tip of the plant with several other leaves, and have made him a temporary home until we can find a butterfly net (or wait for Amazon to deliver one if we can't find it locally).

He is VERY tiny, probably just a few millimeters right now, and looks mostly green, but you can see tiny black bands beginning to show up.  We can even see his tiny antennae!

We are so excited for this journey to metamorphosis! 

TODDLER'S FIRST TIME SNOWBOARDING!