Sunday, November 11, 2007
Solitary Traveler
Came across a Monarch caterpillar a couple weeks ago in near freezing temps a week after other Monarchs had passed through. Butterfly emerged today and almost immediately
it was attacked by a preying mantis hiding in a house plant. Rescued with no apparent harm done. Properly fed and tagged he was released to the elements (20-25 mph S wind).
Chances for reaching Mexico I'm sure are slim but better than none.
At what point do we say 'hands off, let Mother Nature take her course'? If a butterfly beats it's wings in Oklahoma does a typhoon blow up in Okinawa?
Good luck little guy.
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4 comments:
That's really cool, steve. Keep rescuing them and toss the mantis some hamburger!
btw, have you noticed any more/less honey bees?
I have to admit I don't know anything about tagging the monarchs- but the ambush sounds incredible- hey do you recommend a digital camera or a website to choose from- big Fiday or black Friday or black bag Friday is comin and my money is ready to fly to China
RW, we've used a bunch of digi cams, mostly Sony. The one I use for the monarch shots is a 5-6 year old 1.3 megapixel Sony. I like it cause it's big enough to handle,has a good size lcd and of course takes good pix. Don't know how much you want to spend but there's lot's of competition out there for your bucks. Long-zoom digitals offer lots of creative control for a pretty good price but are not "pocket cameras". Everything now has 6,8, even 10 megapixels which aren't needed unless you plan on wall size posters. Do you ebay?
PB, I think the late freeze last spring hurt alot of the wildflowers. Not nearly as much bloom as I've seen in the past. I'm sure that doesn't help the bee population. As far as Honey bees in particular I'm sure there are less than a few years ago. The clover used to be swarming with them, now there seem to be only a few. It's scary to think what will happen if they disappear!
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