[Diana in Wisconsin]

You are now officially, ‘The Monarch Whisperer!’ WOW! So cool! :)

[MomwithHope]

My grove of 5 or 6 trees. Planted too close together obviously. Look for the darker green leaves in the center. Here are two of the lower branches, loaded. I tied them up years ago as the east side of the trees get most of the fruit. Still hanging mighty low from the weight.

[FamiliarFace]

Hubby is calling me his “little naturalist” the last few weeks.

At first, my family called me the deer whisperer, because whenever I went to visit Mom and take care of her every month, I always saw deer, and no one else did until I pointed them out.

Then they called me the bird whisperer, because I have learned a lot about backyard birds.

Then I was the owl whisperer, the fox whisperer, and now…now I am the Monarch whisperer!

I am totally untrained and just tried my best to give these little guys and gals a helping hand. I hope one of their progeny makes it to Mexico!

[FamiliarFace]

Has anyone ever watched a butterfly emerge from its chrysalis? This morning I got to do that, although I nearly missed it. I knew the Monarch was close to emerging because the chrysalis was becoming translucent and I could see black and orange underneath it. I had been watching for 35 minutes, but decided to take my coffee cup back into the kitchen and put it into the sink. I was only gone for 60 seconds. By the time I got back, I saw this.

The process started, so I had my cell phone camera rolling. It took several minutes for the little lady to come all the way out.

Here she is almost fully emerged.

She had a good afternoon, pumping her wings and letting them dry. We are having rain tonight, so we will see if she’s ready to leave the habitat and make her way in the real world.