Monarch

I had time this weekend to play around with my Corel software and I tried a bunch of different stuff on one of my pics.  I just happen to really like this monarch picture, that’s why I chose it.  This is the first butterfly that I raised from a caterpillar in my house.  As soon as it emerged from it’s chrysalis, I brought it outside and got some pictures.  When  it’s wings were dry enough to fly, it was free to go.

The original

Box Camera

Early Color

Negative image

Sandstone

Soft plastic

Spikes

Tiles

 

Dewdrops

Chrysalis

I took these pics when I got home from work this morning.  I slept for awhile and when I got up the butterfly hadn’t come out yet.  Unfortunately, it came out while I was out walking in the woods, so I didn’t get to see it.  I have one that will come out tomorrow and one that will come out in about a week and a half.  Hopefully I will get to see one of them emerge and get pics of it.

Monarchs

A few weeks ago I started my Monarch Project, in which I brought 3 caterpillars into the house on milkweed stalks. They formed their chrysalis’s two weeks ago and the first one emerged yesterday.  I was surprised to see it and hadn’t been paying attention to it because I read that it would take closer to 4 weeks.  I had built a wooden frame and covered it with screen and when I walked over to look, much to my surprise, there was a butterfly already hatched out.  I brought it outside to let it finish drying it’s wings and fly away.    I have another cocoon that has turned black and orange and I hope to see the butterfly emerge today.  These are the pics from yesterdays butterfly.

What an amazing gift from God!

The Monarch Project

Someone told me how to raise Monarch butterflies from  caterpillars in my home so I decided I just had to try it.  I found 3 caterpillars on milkweed plants and cut the milkweed and brought it in the house and put it in a bottle of water.  The caterpillars will then continue to happily munch away on the milkweed leaves until its time to make a cocoon.  You have to put newspaper down underneath cuz these little guys poop alot.  I brought the first one in last Tuesday, the 14th and I found two more on Saturday.  The one pictured here is one of the ones I found on Saturday and it made it’s cocoon today.  It started hanging by its rear end last evening and continued to hang there all day today and at about 3:00 this afternoon it made a cocoon and I was so happy to be able to see it.  It really was quite amazing.  The second one has been hanging since this afternoon, so I’ll be expecting another cocoon tomorrow sometime.  I sure hope I get to see it.

This morning.

About halfway finished.

The completed cocoon.

Gravel Pit Treasures

I found quite a few cool things to take pics of Saturday while prowling around in my brother-in-laws gravel pit.

An Awesome Walk

Yesterday it was cool and cloudy, but it was a great day for a walk down the ATV trail.  I found all the same stuff as last year but it was still a lot of fun to get out and take pics.

Skippers and Wildflowers

A Day at the Lake

This past weekend I went kayaking on Forest Lake.  I paddled around to the other side of the lake where there is a stream that feeds the lake.  As I began paddling up the stream I noticed these small flowers growing very abundantly along both sides.   I only had my small camera that doesn’t do macro near as well as my Rebel, so I broke my #1 rule and took some of the flowers home.  I put them in a vase and photographed them out on my deck.  I know, I cheated….but I couldn’t help it, these flowers are so beautiful, and I just had to share them.  The flowers of both species here are only 1/4 inch long.  They look huge in the pics, but are really quite small.

Bog Rosemary

Leatherleaf

Short-Winged Blister Beetle

A couple weeks ago I found one of these beetles in the woods and took pics of it, then came home and identified it in my reference book.  It says that when disturbed,  it will fall over and play dead.  I then went back out to see if I could find it again and pester it, but it was gone.  Yesterday, I found another one munching on a leaf.  I poked at it till it fell off the leaf and, sure enough, it played dead.  It just laid there, not moving, even when I put it in my hand.  I put it down on a leaf to watch and see what it would do, but it wouldn’t move.  I walked a few feet away to take a picture of a flower and within a few minutes it was gone.  I didn’t see if it walked or flew away.  It’s wings are so small that it doesn’t look like it could fly very good.

Eating lunch.

Playing dead.