I volunteered weeks ago to spend the day at Callaway Gardens last Saturday. They offer some workshops/continuing ed. classes that are always interesting - but apparently not in a general sense. There were only two people in the class I was helping with. I was not much actual 'help' (other than putting the pre-printed name tags on the two women who had paid to take the class), but thoroughly enjoyed being there as a part of the group, absorbing information. You might begin to have a suspicion that I decided to become a volunteer at the Gardens in order to benefit from attending certain events that occur there???
The guy who was teaching, Mike, is the director of the Day Butterfly Center there in the Gardens, so naturally, you'd expect him to be knowledgeable. And he most definitely was. I ended up sitting there with the other two participants, and probably took more notes/learned more than either of them. I'm full up to here with butterfly lore, specifically all you'd ever want to know about Monarchs and their Migration. I won't bore you with all I know, and would have to get my notes to provide monumental amounts of trivia.
After a morning of discussion, watching a short film, and a power point, plenty of Q & A, we broke for lunch, and reassembled at the Butterfly Center. Mike was to show us how to properly/safely net a butterfly, and 'tag' it, should we happen to see/catch a Monarch. He said he had not seen any this season, but while he was waiting for the three of us to reassemble, he saw one.The 'tag' is a wee, smaller than your pinky nail self-adhesive dot, with wee, smaller numbers to be documented for tracking. The one Mike spotted escaped tagging on Sat., and probably headed on south. He pointed out a couple of masqueraders that look similar to Monarchs, but if you look fast enough, you can see a difference in the patterning on wings to know they are pretenders and not the real thing.
There is only one plant that the caterpillars eat, so that is the 'host' plant.I'm delighted to announce that I bought (overpriced) milkweed plants last spring. And have been noticing they have been stripped of leaves, so something/somebody/somebug has been enjoying, whether it was a Monarch caterpillar or not, I cannot say. They are chunky, juicy, striped yellow,black and white, (nasty) looking things with stubby black feelers/horns on both ends as camouflage. So you have to patiently observe to know whether it is coming or going by waiting for movement.
The numbers of butterflies migrating from year to year are steadily decreasing, possibly due to loss of habitat. Monarchs fly from Canada, as far north as Hudson Bay, to overwinter in central Mexico, and make the return trip in the spring - longer than any other butterfly travels: Amazing! Mike gave the participants in the workshop/class two pots of a different sort of milkweed to take home. I am going to get mine planted today.
He was really preaching the 'butterfly garden' gospel, saying that the only way to preserve and increase the numbers is to have things growing that attract them. There are many that only eat one type plant, one particular herb or shrub, so without that specific thing to feed them, they will slowly cease to exist. And what would our world be with a big gap in the food chain, without butterflies, and the things that feed on them? Plant dill! Plant fennel! Plant milkweed!
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