I haven't seen cats on any of my plants for years. I even have the native milkweed, a whole row of it by the field. Is that a butterfly weed? I also have that in several areas around the property. Do you think birds prey on the cats?

Well, here’s this kind of cat! No Monarchs here, haven’t seen one in ages.

schoolhouse, it is butterfly weed. "They" say that birds know that the Monarch cats taste bad, so don't usually eat them.

Someone's cat ( I hope )

Mine comes with gravestones, in Ireland.

two guys in my kitchen... cooking and cleaning up after themselves... awesome food! :)

Giant redwood trees near the N. California coast - they humble me:

Picture from today. I think this is a queen caterpillar and not a monarch. There is also an egg. I found them outside on my milkweed and brought them in for protection.

I entered 3 pics of Tux in our county fair, 2 got blue ribbons. He is certainly photogenic (imo).

Evidently in the Judges' opinion too. Congrats!

Who loves this place? My two Texas friends do!

One is in process of being built near me!

Glenda_al, I had to look up to identify Buc-ee's. Sure could have used some of those when driving cross-country.

Everything for a buck at "buc-ees" ...?

Or are they "buc-aneers"?

o j

I don't have any clue what this creature may turn out to be - but he caught my eye yesterday. And he moved slow enough that I could take his photo.

What's buc-ees?

My two Texan friends, one from Houston, the other from Austin, now living in Al, rave over this place. One thing for it's cleanliness and the other you can find just about anything.

Buc-ee's is an American chain of convenience stores and gas stations located in the Central, North, South, and Southeast regions of Texas and Robertsdale, Alabama[1] The company is owned by Arch "Beaver" Aplin III and Don Wasek and has its headquarters in Lake Jackson, Texas.[2] The chain is known for its very large-format stores and clean restrooms (relative to other convenience stores) and a logo depicting a beaver.

lgmd, how wonderful that you have the Monarch caterpillars. I see eggs on my milkweed but never caterpillars or chrysalids. Something is preying on the eggs I guess. Thanks for that pic.

Socks,I didn't check on the caterpillars this morning as DH had a heart cath scheduled. Came home at 3 to find that all the cats had moved to the butterfly weed next to the one they were on yesterday which is now completely deleafed. Counted 14 there now. I got a tray and moved 8 of them to a larger stand of butterfly weed in another part of the yard. No caterpillars there that I could see. I will go check on them before dark.

Posting late in response to marie_cate's image:

I found this somewhat similar looking caterpillar in my yard by bumping it with the back of my neck while mowing under the tree it was in. Over the course of the next 45 minutes I experienced a burning, searing, stinging sensation because the hairs can break off if you touch them and contain an irritating, stinging poison.

I found an app to help me identify unknowns such as plants and trees when I go hiking.

It also works with animals and moths like the one above

If the app is correct, that's a "White Flannel Moth". The app is "Seek". https://www.inaturalist.org/pages/seek_app

Ice Cream bananas hanging out back that I'm looking forward to:

"White Flannel Moth" Correct!

I've tried using online plant identifiers in the past and usually get as stuck on questions containing words I don't know "Are the Racimes Rugose? "

Or asking about attributes that I didn't note. Or having such a limited list of plants that the identification is to general to be useful : "Its a maple"

Yeah, me too.
That's what I like about this app. It doesn't ask questions. You just scan whatever you're trying to identify and it tells you what it is.

Not every time but enough times to be useful.