Friday March 27, 2009 The Crocus popped up by my backyard water garden on this cool day, in the 40's. The nights are still in the 30's. The bees worked laboriously getting nectar from the bright purple Crocus'. Their legs were fattened with nectar!The Crocus burst from the soil about a week ago, but now are standing 5-inches tall and sprouting beautiful purple petals with gold-
yellow interiors! An oasis of nector for the honey bees!
June 2006: My wife and I decided to add a few "wildlife-friendly" spaces to our lawn. The 
introductory photo above is of our tree lawn on Lincoln Street in Fremont with a Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly. You can see the red brick portion of Lincoln Street in the background. Isn’t that better than a bare space of grass? Spaces in our tree lawn, side yard and backyard are devoted to Monarch butterflies. Monarch caterpillars can only eat Milkweed plants, so that's what we planted. Here's me releasing a recently hatched 
Monarch upon some Swamp Milkweed in our Monarch Waystation (photo above). Our yard has become registered Monarch Waystation No. 613 (right photo) and we have fun observing all the other species of butterflies and birds these spaces attract. Beautiful Tiger Swallowtails visit everyday. These wildlife-friendly spaces complement the lawn and attract many songbirds, including dozens of yellow & black Goldfinches. People walking past stop and admire the milkweed and nectaring flower blooms and the wildlife they attract.
Our side and back yards have small spaces devoted to wildlife. The side yard (left photo) has Swamp Milkweed, Cardinal flowers, Bee Balm, Lilacs, and Sedum. Songbirds, butterflies, moths, hummingbirds, honey bees, dragonflies, and colorful insects are attracted to the nectaring flowers. So, by creating a Monarch Waystation, we help other species of animals and birds as well. Female Monarch butterflies lay eggs only on Milkweed plants. Without Milkweed plants, the Monarch couldn't survive. For some reason, many think of the milkweed as a “weed”; however, that’s only because they never saw the beautiful flowers that Common and Swamp Milkweeds produce. The aroma of the flowers are like a strong perfume!
I collect the eggs of our milkweed plants and hatch them on my front porch, then raise the caterpillars until they form a chrysalis. Here's a Monarch egg 
photo. It's barely visible to the naked eye. This Monarach egg photo was taken by Monarch Watch. The chrysalis' begin to darken just before they hatch into a Monarch butterfly. I take the Monarch butterfly and test each one for the OE virus. I'm considered a "citizen scientist" and help out Dr. Sonia Altizer at the University of Georgia with her studies of the OE virus. She’s studied this protozoan parasite called Ophryocystis elektroscirrha….let’s just call it OE! I collect and hatch the Monarch eggs. It's amazing to watch the caterpillars transform into beautiful Monarch butterflies. 
During the summer of 2008, I raised, tested for OE, tagged, and released over 80 Monarchs from my yard alone. At one point, my wife and I had 44 Monarch caterpillars and they ate many milkweed plant leaves we supplied them on a daily basis. Here's the Monarch "cage" I used to raise the caterpillars in (right photo). The photo (below right) shows how they form chrysalis' at the top. One female Monarch has just hatched from its chrysalis!!
In the Fall, I will begin capturing and tagging adult Monarch butterflies, which will be making the long migration to central Mexico, where they spend the winter. I help Tom Kashmer and the Sandusky County Park District capture and tag migrating Monarchs as they begin their incredible journey to Mexico. The wing tags have a toll-free number to call at the University of Kansas. Over a dozen Monarchs tagged in 
Fremont by Tom Kashmer have been found and reported in Mexico. That's 3,000 miles away!
If you want to find out more about creating a Monarch Waystation, contact MonarchWatch at:
http://www.monarchwatch.com/
If you have children, it's a great way to introduce them to nature and to do more than sit in front of the computer all day long. Here’s a neat story on the news about a boy who started a Monarch Waystation at his school:
http://www.wdef.com/video/chattanooga_8_year_old_named_young_eco_hero/07/2008
Who said Milkweed wasn't a beautiful plant! Here's a picture of one of our 23 Swamp Milkweed plants in our side yard. Beautiful row of pink flowers that smell like a strong perfume:
This site will be updated weekly, with an on-going saga of the plight of the Monarch Butterfly. Hope you can join Monarch Watch, too. Look at how they explain the simple way to create a registered Monarch Waystation. By the way, the city of Fremont, Ohio has a registered Monarch Waystation as well. Drive over the Hayes Avenue Bridge heading east and look to the right. You'll see a field with Monarch Waystation signs. Thanks to Ken Myers, our Safety Service Director, Fremont City has joined Monarch Watch and put up the Monarch Waystation signs and left the area unmowed. In addition to the deer that bed down in that area each night and the songbirds which eat the grass seeds, I collected over 100 Monarch eggs from the Common Milkweed plants there. So, thanks Ken and the maintenance crews...you've already saved a 100 Monarchs!
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