Monarch De Triomphe!

Finally! A wounded Monarch butterfly came into my garden today. She had a chunk taken out of her wing, but was flying very well despite her injury.  I tried to photograph her, however she wouldn't sit still for me. Tonight when I checked, I found 4 eggs that she had left.  They are in the plastic container/nursery.

 Then I was delighted to find a monarch caterpillar about 3/4 inch in length. It could have been developed from an egg the other day when I saw a Monarch zip out of the garden.  It is now inside the "Big House"  crawling around the Milkweed stalks with the other cats.

They are all about an inch or more iin the Big House now and eating and "frassing" (polite way of saying caterpillar pooping).

While I was searching for more eggs I spotted something that looked like a humming bird, about the same size as a humming bird.  It had the rapidly flapping wings, but didn't have the long slender beak typical of a humming bird.  After searching online I discovered it was a "Humming Bird Moth". How appropriate for a butterfly garden! 

2016                                                                        2015

Eggs              4                                                      Eggs              2

Caterpillars    5                                                       Caterpillars    38