A beautiful day always calls for a tour of the garden with the camera. When I came upon this milkweed growing in the stone path , there was no way I could miss this big fat Monarch caterpillar munching away on the top leaf of the plant. Why he's nearly as long as the milkweed leaf is wide.
I next noticed a very small caterpillar on another leaf of the same plant. This one is much younger, and barely reaches the distance across half a leaf. What luck to see two caterpillars on the same milkweed plant right here in the garden. As I looked more closely I noticed another caterpillar on the underside of the very same leaf. You can see his shadow. Just the top of his head peaks over the edge as he munches the hole in the leaf from underneath. Now this is getting almost too good!
Closer inspection revealed one more caterpillar on the underneath side of the big caterpillar's milkweed leaf. If I were that smaller caterpillar , just the shadow of that behemoth would make me drop down to another leaf. They seem to be sharing the space with no problem.
Clearly the large caterpillar has been munching on the top of this plant for awhile. I wonder if the plant has enough leaves for everyone. The weather will be a factor. Mother Nature hedges her bets. Butterfly eggs laid at different times instead of all at once improve the chances of overall survivial.
I took great delight in calling first Ed, and then Amy over to let them discover all four caterpillars. It makes me glad that we allowed the milkweed to grow in the stone path. Who would want to miss this much fun?
Later as I sat on the garden bench thinking that the hummingbirds had left for the winter on this week's wind from the north, a friendly hummer flew right in front of me. I was happy to see at least one is still around.
2 comments:
I also spotted a couple today. Kind of sad, cold weather is not all that far off.
The hummers might be gone here. Since the cold front and rain hit (last Sat) I haven't seen any at the Jewelweed which is almost played out now.
I have seen many, many Monarchs fluttering around my garden this year - and they're still here. But I have not spotted a caterpillar on my milkweeds since the first year I put them in. Great shots. I'm pretty certain my hummingbirds have left.
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