frass is beautiful!

I find frass on the leaves of my swamp butterfly weed and it makes me smile. It makes me ohhh and ahhh.  Little speckles over several leaves of the swamp weed excites me and gets me to ever so carefully search.

For those that don't know, frass is ...insect poop! In this case, and most importantly, it is the poop of the Monarch caterpillar.  More is better!
And the more I see it, the more I search for the little cats.

I've been finding them.  And eggs, and once I looked just in time to see a tiny instar eating the egg it had recently exited.  Exciting stuff!  I did find one that looked to be 2nd instar, but I was having difficulty finding him, then I got interrupted by a monarch. I didn't want to prevent it from laying eggs so I left the swamp weed. I'll have to go look again in the morning.

For once a monarch wasn't so shy and I was able to get a few more photos.  Unlike me the monarchs are loving this hot humid weather.  I've read where, the warmer the temps the faster the development of the four stages they go through. 

At least today I didn't find any stinkbugs on my butterfly bush.  They are still the one thing that will eat a Monarch cat.  According to what Sister was told, stinkbugs will eat them, but die since the Monarchs are poisonous.  Eventually they will make the connection that it's because of the Monarch and future generations will have learned to avoid them.  Let's hope so!

I continue to get quite a few tiger swallowtails, both yellow and black form, or morphed, ones.  Some are very ragged, with at least half their wings gone, while others look fresh.  I can only assume that nearby is a suitable host plant for them, since I have none.

Nice to see the Tiger and Monarch sharing!

I'm not sure if I mentioned the other day, watching the groundhog make his way across my yard on his way home to the shed (or under it) he stopped at the last hosta of a row and had a nibble on a leaf.  Now the hosta...he can have all he wants!  Especially if it means he'd leave other plants alone!  I plan on getting rid of them, but I need to figure out what to put in their place when I get around to moving them, or giving them away.

In the mornings out in the yard, I keep hearing what sounds like a falcon. It is close by, but can't be seen from my yard.  He's very loud. Only at times do the birds panic and fly off into the trees. It all sounds the same to me, but there must be a noise he makes that frightens them all.

And my beautiful nicotiana plant isn't looking good at all. It seems to be suddenly dying and I've no idea why.

Funny that the sunflower planted by the birds or some critter, is doing well. Despite the intense heat and humidity that has returned with a vengeance after a few days break.  They are helpful in planting seeds, but it would be nice if they had some clue about plant placement!