Like A Diamond In The Sky

I've spent the last several nights watching for the Comet NEOWISE.  I finally realized that I was probably missing it due to all the trees around our house, so last night I packed up the dogs and my camera (but forgot the bug repellent and my binoculars) and headed for the hill in the back field.

About the bug repellent...I really don't notice many bugs around the house and barn at night.  If the back porch light is on, then yes, but if not, they really aren't a problem.  Bug repellent never even crossed my mind.  The binoculars...never crossed my mind either but that's a mind issue, not an experience issue.

Turns out the bats are taking care of a LOT of bugs each night.  The back field was brutal.  Between not having any luck spotting the comet and knowing even if I did I wouldn't be able to see it very well without the binoculars and The Bugs, I finally bailed around 10:30 and headed back to the barn.  

As I drove through the gate next to the barn I looked up and just like finding a four leaf clover, there it was.  Right over the Wool House.  I took this picture with my iPhone.  I'll try again tonight to get a "big girl camera" shot...or maybe I'll just watch it through the binoculars and enjoy it.  

You can see it pretty well with just your naked eye, but the tail is really incredible with some zoom. Here's a link that might help you spot it.  Sounds like we have a couple more days of visibility.  Go out and find it.  Don't forget your binoculars...and your bug spray if you don't have a hard working bat colony.

How I Spent My Summer Vacation - Butterflies Part Two

Or actually, this should be Part One now that I think about it, because without this part, we wouldn't have had yesterday's post :-).

I thought I had a picture of 

This tiny caterpillar is actually a couple days old.  I thought I'd posted a picture of an egg somewhere, but I can't find it, but in looking for it, I found a picture of a just hatched caterpillar.  Oh my goodness, teeny tiny!  So, yes, the one in this picture is a couple days old at this point.

A day or so older and the big one at the bottom is maybe four or five days old.

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He (or she) eats milkweed like it’s corn on the cob 😍. #monarchbutterfly #monarchcaterpillar #monarchnursery #milkweed

A post shared by Sara Dunham (@thecrazysheeplady) on Aug 7, 2018 at 2:30pm PDT

They eat and eat and eat and eat and then one day they stop, find a spot they like, attach themselves at the back end and let the front end hang down in a "J" and they hang there for a day or so and then if you are lucky, you may notice some movement and before your eyes they'll turn into a chrysalis.  Literally before your eyes.  A matter of minutes.

Or you'll more likely walk out of the house and just find a beautiful green pendant.  They start just plain solid green, but with a bright gold "necklace" and over the next 10 or so days you can start seeing a hint of the wings forming.

And then one day you'll notice the green turning black and wonder how on earth a big butterfly is packaged up in there!

Here's a closer look.

And then, if you are lucky, right before your eyes the shell will crack open and a butterfly will drop out and hopefully grabs onto the shell as it falls.  If he or she falls to the ground, quickly grab a leg and hold it up in the air until the wings fully open.  They can't open on the ground and the butterfly will die.

And how do those tiny crumbled up wings open into a full size butterfly?  Notice the fat abdomen. 

They pump the fluid from there into their wings and you can watch it happen, again, just a matter of minutes!

Almost done.

The gold "necklace" remains on the chrysalis shell.

Once the wings are fully extended, they hang on for another hour or two depending on the weather and will periodically open and shut, or fan, their wings to fully dry off and I'm assuming gather some strength for flying and then poof, they're up, up and away :-).

It was sure nice to see so many butterflies this year.  I'm thinking it was just a good bug year (there were more of everything, good like fireflies, and bad like all the nasty biting bugs that chewed on me all summer), but maybe it is a sign that everyone's efforts to protect the monarch butterflies is paying off.

Just Like Fireflies

Actually, not really very much like fireflies...but they did appear to glow in the setting sun.  I didn't get a great picture of all of them floating around, but I do like this picture of Petunia and Renny grazing together with Buddy looking on.   Might be a fun puzzle :-).

And Then The Plagues Started

Well, just one plague. And it was really more something super cool we were really glad to experience - a swarm of dragonflies!  Hundreds of them swooping and darting and buzzing and soaring and circling and flying all around us in front of the barn.  Actually, now that I think about it, we probably were experiencing two plagues, an insect hatching of some sort and the dragonflies taking care of them for us :-D.

I didn't get any good pictures and the video I took only barely shows them, but to me it's still a good souvenir of something that many people don't ever get to see. The chirp purr you can hear if you turn your sound up is Comby, another good souvenir :-).

Click to biggify.

Garden Buddies

"Hi there!"

This was a very agreeable medium size praying mantis.  The sun was setting so the light was difficult and I kept asking it to move from flower to flower, hoping to squeeze out a little direct sun.  I'd take the blossom it was on and touch it to the one I wanted it to move to.  No border collie needed :-).

This big guy was who originally caught my eye as I walked past the dye garden last night.  Biggest grasshopper I've ever seen!  And, and this just seems so weird that I didn't know this, I could see him breathing and it struck me as really odd...as I guess I didn't realize bugs breathed.  You know, like in and out where you could see it.  Had to look it up and sure enough...

He was pretty agreeable too.  I didn't ask him to move around, but he let me work and work to get the focus right on this so his face was sharp and clear.  He's hanging on to a fennel branch and I love how the foliage looks completely foreign.

"G'night crazy bug lady."

Everybody take care of each other.