Writer’s Studio Word Challenge for 7/20/2024
Use these
words: Peak, Garden, Ecstatic, Plethora, Resemble,
Inconsolable, Pistachio
I’m a Monarch Foster Mom
It’s the
middle of July and not the peak of the Monarch butterflies’ journey
south, that comes in another month. I’m patiently awaiting the release of my
first adult Monarch butterfly, hopefully by next weekend. This year’s garden
has yielded few eggs and fewer caterpillars. I’ve looked at my records and
found that by this time in July in past years I had the following results:
2019-three released. 2020-ten released. 2021-four
released. 2022-none.
2023-seventeen released and headed for a personal best
of 85. That resembles a victory to me.
In 2021 my
notes indicate I was losing a lot of caterpillars. I felt discouraged and
practically inconsolable. Fortunately, I found help online. The possible
culprits were the eggs of parasitic flies and wasps. Plus, infections from OE, Ophryocystis
elektroscirrha, a protozoan parasite that leaves the butterflies weak, deformed,
and flightless.
My 2022
caterpillar season was shortened because of travel plans. Hardly any reason to
feel ecstatic.
Then came 2023.
I put into action all of my newfound knowledge and was rewarded with a plethora
of chrysalises, that final stage where the miracle of metamorphosis occurs. I
love the delicate pistachio green color that hides all the action of
transformation until that final moment when all is revealed. The green color
fades out to a clear window filled with orange and black. Cracks slowly appear before
the case abruptly splits open. A podgy body with a wrinkled mass of wings
somersaults out, hangs by spindly legs, and begins the twists and turns that
will inflate the wings with fluid stored in the abdomen. First flight doesn’t
happen until the filled-out wings dry and harden. Then it’s off they go. Out of
my life. Missed, but not forgotten. They are wild things after all.
The odds
are against each and every one from the moment the egg is laid. I hope that by
adding to the migration numbers my efforts might improve the odds that some
will make the journey, survive till next spring, and begin the cycle all over
again. Since 2019 I’ve nurtured 256 caterpillars to adulthood in my little bit
of suburbia. Will one of mine make it? I can only hope so.
Check out:
https://monarchwatch.org/
For guidance
and help:
Monarch Butterfly Life <questions@monarchbutterflygarden.net>
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