My what big eyes you have!

whitecaps

Sunrise.

Late today and bringing up the rear...

Little Henry Sweetspire

Our Monarch made his appearance today!!! It was thrilling to watch!

Beautiful photo, murraysmom! I can imagine how exciting that was to witness. Do monarchs usually emerge this late in the year or is this guy a straggler?

Thank you! This guy may have been a straggler. About 10 days ago my neighbor saw the caterpillar on my back steps. I have a milkweed plant so I got her son to pick up the caterpillar (with a plastic card - he crawled right on) and we put him on the plant. The next morning he had already turned into the green chrysalis. Then yesterday I saw that the chrysalis was clear and the butterfly's colors could be seen inside! Then today about 1:00pm we saw that the butterfly was beginning to come out. So a few of us stood around for two hours to watch him come out and rest before taking off. I didn't get to see him take off but I did get everything else. I took lots of pictures and my neighbor's son even used my phone to take a video. He's young and can squat without shaking! LOL I've post the pictures on Facebook. What an amazing event to witness.

That is very cool - what a great story and experience! I like the part about everyone standing around watching even the young son. Just goes to show that nature still has technology beat when it comes to interesting things that can hold our attention. :-)

Murraysmom, This is a pic of one that I took last year on Sept. 22 of a just emerged Monarch. You can see it's empty chrysalis to the right. I watched it for days, but sadly missed the grand entrance. Yes, Mom nature sure is a wonder to behold.

They are magnificent! Such beautiful creatures!!