Wildlife on Monarch Lane

After mentioning the other day that visits from Monarchs had been pretty rare, I noticed that whenever I looked out in the yard today there was a Monarch feeding on the Swamp Milkweed. This leads me to believe that sometime soon something very small will start appearing underneath the milkweed leaves- the small object seen in the picture. This is a Monarch egg- about the size of a poppy seed. As mentioned before, as soon as the caterpillars hatch they start growing at an incredible rate. The Swamp Milkweed is still in full bloom, much to my surprise. It's probably because it's a bit shadier in our back yard so it blooms later than most of our local milkweed.

In other news, we have company- granddaughter Immi. Last night we ate outside on the deck, and Immi saw her first hummingbird- the hummingbird feeder was six feet away from where we were eating and the hummers were visiting the feeder as we ate. Also coming to the sunflower, thistle, and suet feeders next to that were three species of woodpeckers- a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers with one or two of their offspring (a pair showed up this winter and I hoped they would stick around), several Downy woodpeckers, and a juvenile Red-bellied, dressed nicely in almost all gray. I'm assuming it'll acquire adult plumage withing the next year.