It's the Labour Day long weekend, hard to believe that summer zipped by that fast yet again. There are still nice temperatures out there, and lots to see. It's raptor migration season beginning, and the Monarch butterflies are on their 4th stage of their life cycle, this 4th generation that will be born soon, will be the one that heads to Mexico.
We saw Monarch butterflies mating a couple weeks ago, and on our recent walk at Tommy Thompson this weekend, we saw quite a lot of the little results munching milkweed leaves, the Monarch caterpillars. There were other types of caterpillars there, one we saw a lot of, the Milkweed Tussock Moth's caterpillar, which are quite the sight, with their spiky orange black and white hairy selves. Lucky I did Not give in to my impulse to touch its hairy spiky fur as apparently it has an irritant or poison that can burn and sting lol! There was a Tiger Moth orange fuzzy caterpillar, and a Hickory Tussock Moth, another poisonous caterpillar.
The Monarch caterpillars were plentiful, we did not spot any chrysalis' but we saw at least 25 Monarch caterpillars, all over milkweed. Some were small, some were huge. We also saw one Polyphemus Moth caterpillar, which looked to be beginning to build it's cocoon, but hard to know for sure. They are huge green caterpillars.
The gold finches were going nuts on the thistle seeds, there was a juvenile cormorant swimming near the bridge, a kingfisher hovering over the marsh area, and 2 families of Trumpeter swans with juvenile swans with them. A couple egrets flew by and we spotted one in the marsh. Terns are still around.
Tommy Thompson is great for a good long walk with very little incline changes. Our main intention to go there for our weekend nature hike/walk was for the possible Monarch chrysalis sightings, and maybe a bald eagle fly by high above and way far away. We did not hold out much hope of the odds being in our favour, but we were pleasantly thrilled and surprised both those hopeful sightings were Almost met!
We didn't see a chrysalis, but we Did see plenty of Monarchs, their caterpillars, and lots of other interesting caterpillars. Yes, we did get to see a bald eagle, but not a far away fly by, we saw a juvenile perched in a tree. John spotted his tail and back from a bit away. As we rounded the trees he was in, there he was, a bald eagle, looking around, sitting shaded in the leaves of the tree. At one point he looked over towards me and seemed to stare into my eyes. We stood and looked at him for a bit, then we continued on. We felt very very lucky to get to see him and hope he is fine, as he'll most likely be on his way by now, to where he was headed.
We saw Monarch butterflies mating a couple weeks ago, and on our recent walk at Tommy Thompson this weekend, we saw quite a lot of the little results munching milkweed leaves, the Monarch caterpillars. There were other types of caterpillars there, one we saw a lot of, the Milkweed Tussock Moth's caterpillar, which are quite the sight, with their spiky orange black and white hairy selves. Lucky I did Not give in to my impulse to touch its hairy spiky fur as apparently it has an irritant or poison that can burn and sting lol! There was a Tiger Moth orange fuzzy caterpillar, and a Hickory Tussock Moth, another poisonous caterpillar.The Monarch caterpillars were plentiful, we did not spot any chrysalis' but we saw at least 25 Monarch caterpillars, all over milkweed. Some were small, some were huge. We also saw one Polyphemus Moth caterpillar, which looked to be beginning to build it's cocoon, but hard to know for sure. They are huge green caterpillars.
The gold finches were going nuts on the thistle seeds, there was a juvenile cormorant swimming near the bridge, a kingfisher hovering over the marsh area, and 2 families of Trumpeter swans with juvenile swans with them. A couple egrets flew by and we spotted one in the marsh. Terns are still around.
Tommy Thompson is great for a good long walk with very little incline changes. Our main intention to go there for our weekend nature hike/walk was for the possible Monarch chrysalis sightings, and maybe a bald eagle fly by high above and way far away. We did not hold out much hope of the odds being in our favour, but we were pleasantly thrilled and surprised both those hopeful sightings were Almost met!
We didn't see a chrysalis, but we Did see plenty of Monarchs, their caterpillars, and lots of other interesting caterpillars. Yes, we did get to see a bald eagle, but not a far away fly by, we saw a juvenile perched in a tree. John spotted his tail and back from a bit away. As we rounded the trees he was in, there he was, a bald eagle, looking around, sitting shaded in the leaves of the tree. At one point he looked over towards me and seemed to stare into my eyes. We stood and looked at him for a bit, then we continued on. We felt very very lucky to get to see him and hope he is fine, as he'll most likely be on his way by now, to where he was headed.
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