MONARCH BUTTERFLY NOTES- 7/23/2015

Female Monarch butterfly laying eggs on Butterfly Milkweed
at Wolf Creek Park.

     Thursday July 23, 2015: Hiked around Wolf Creek Park, just south of Fremont, Ohio at noon today. I was elated by the several Monarch females laying eggs amongst the Butterfly Milkweed plants. They are plentiful in the meadow at the entrance to the park. I took photos and videos of the female Monarchs moving from one flower cluster to another on the Butterfly Milkweeds, then seemed to take a break and fed on nearby Wild Bergamot flowers. Then, back to the serious business of laying dozens of eggs and perpetuating the species!

Female Monarch laying eggs at Wolf
Creek Park

     It was fun and uplifting to see them at work...they're back! Before leaving, I collected eggs off milkweed plants that were along the park path and probably would be mowed.
     On the way home, I drove slowly along several county roads that were nearby to Wolf Creek Park and checked several patches of Common Milkweed that were just off the pavement and soon would be mowed. In total, I collected 14 Monarch eggs on my "Monarch Jaunt."
   

A Tiger Swallowtail fed on the Wild Bergamot
at Wolf Creek Park

  Upon arriving home, I checked the side yard Common and Swamp Milkweed plants and collected 17 eggs! That makes 31 eggs collected in total for today alone. After rarely seeing a Monarch butterfly and finding zero eggs on the dozens of milkweed plants so far this summer, today was quite uplifting, indeed! I have 3 plastic aquariums filled with milkweed leaves

with Monarch butterfly eggs attached.
     Later on that afternoon, I checked the side yard milkweeds again and found 4 more eggs...that's 35 eggs in total for today.

The female Monarchs and Tiger Swallowtail fed
voraciously on the Wild Bergamot at Wolf
Creek Park

     Interestingly, I've only collected one tiny caterpillar so far. Seeing few eggs or tiny newly-hatched Monarch caterpillars until now leads me to believe that, on only the past several days, the real egg-laying summertime event has finally arrived here in Fremont, in NW Ohio. 

 

Another female Monarch busy egg-laying at Wolf
Creek  Park

 

Cumulative log 7/23/2015:

Total Monarch eggs collected- 61

Total Monarch caterpillars collected- 1

Monarchs released- 3, 2 males  1 female

 



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Robert Morton, M.Ed., Ed.S. is dedicated to saving the Monarch butterfly. If you have any comments or pro-Monarch info to share, please contact him on the Secure Contact Form and he will publish it on this blog.