My cats runneth over!

12 years ago

What a stark difference from July to August. In all of July I only raised and released 5 Monarchs despite my daughter and I searching high and low on any Milkweed that crossed our path. We even jumped out to search for eggs during road trip pit stops. August, however, has been a bonanza, to say the least. I had 26 eggs hatch today alone! And there are still more in the "hatchery". Most of those are courtesy of a faded and tattered Monarch who hung around my Milkweed on and off for a day laying 20+ eggs. I haven't checked the Milkweed in a couple of days because I'm sure I'll find at least a dozen more, not that I'm complaining. We are loving our good fortune. I know the summer started out slow for many but hopefully your luck will change as mine has.

September will prove to be a fun month with lots of tagging and releasing. Anyone else tagging this year?

Here's a link from Monarch Watch re expected Monarch levels this year:

Here is a link that might be useful: July Newsletter

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Comments (3)

jrcagle
12 years ago
Glad to hear it. Monarch numbers here have been abysmal.

Jeff
terrene
12 years ago
Glad your cats runneth over! Sounds like you and your daughter will be pretty busy raising those guys.

Here in metro-west Boston it has been a somewhat steady trickle since mid-June. IIRC, I have released 15 so far, have 6 in chrysalis, and 4 small cats. I keep checking and hoping for a big score! Keeping busy with raising a few BSTs and some Spicebush Swallowtails too.

I got the newsletter the other day. I really should order some tags. Never done it before.
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garnet69
Original Author
12 years ago
Jeff, that's too bad about the Monarch situation. Didn't expect to have any more than a dozen this year myself based on the extremely slow start.

I tagged first time last year. Granted it's a little nerve-wracking handling something so delicate but you become more confident after the first few. Tried ordering tags but they are not available for my area yet.

14 more hatched today and I found 6 more eggs. I'm going to concentrate now on making sure my current cats are well looked after, don't want over-crowding which can lead to disease.

I've seen lots of BSTs this year but they just fly by my dill, don't seem to be interested. Too bad, I really enjoyed raising them in the past, they are so beautiful.

Garnet