Monarch Butterfly Emerges

I saw several monarch butterflies alight upon my swamp milkweek.

Monarch Butterfly on Swamp Milkweed

The Swallows on the front porch

The Barn Swallows built a nest on the front porch this year. They built their nest out of mud and lined it with some some soft material. It was not built on a ledge, rather, it came straight out from the stucco – an amazing feat of engineering. I put a potty box underneath to catch all the dropping. The birds seemed very upset for a few days and I noticed that one of the babies had died. Buzz removed it from the nest. They seem fine now and almost ready to fly.

3 baby swallows in nest

Momma Swallow checks on babies

Baby Swallow ready to fly the coop

The Monarch Caterpillar

I really like milkweed. It smells heavenly. It started coming up in the front garden a few years ago and I started to see monarch butterflies. The other day, as I was walking into the garage – I noticed one beautiful monarch caterpillar munching on the milkweed.

Monarch caterpillar on milkweed

Monarch Caterpillar munching on milkweed

Here is an interesting time-lapsed video (on YouTube) of a monarch caterpillar forming a chrysalis.