Monarch Butterfly Waystation program

    Some of you may have already seen these pictures, if you follow me on Instagram or 500px, but I decided they needed to get put up here again because I got more of the story behind them this evening, so hope you don't mind seeing them twice (or more for those following on multiple channels).

   We live in a small apartment complex near the beach in Carlsbad, Ca. One of the neighbors has a garden with signs out for the facility gardeners not to spray any pesticides or anything on her plants because she is a Monarch Waystation. At first I thought that this meant that she just put out food or something for the butterflies as they migrated... guess I was wrong. Apparently monarchs are running out of natural habitat and there are few places left where they can transform. So she sets up ideal conditions and pretty much plants the appropriate caterpillars in her garden when it's the right season. I missed all the caterpillars while I was out to sea last month, but when I got back there were plenty of beautiful cocoons all over her shrubs.

    These things were pretty cool, not the image that traditionally pops into my head when I think of Cocoons, I normally imagine something brown and lumpy and ugly. These were almost like little jewels or christmas ornaments. 

    Last weekend they started to hatch. Apparently for quite some time after the newborn monarch emerges, they sit there slowly flapping their wings in the breeze to dry themselves out and get ready to fly. It's almost like they are posing for pictures, really wish I had a handy macro lens, because they didn't seem to notice no matter how close I got, I could get closer than anything I had to shoot with would focus down. 

    Anyway, the neighbor was out this evening as we can home from dinner, and we got to chat. Sometimes they come out and aren't healthy, she will actually take them inside and feed them sugar water from a straw to try and get them healthy and they will follow her around the apartment like pets. 

    Of course, the ones that still don't make it apparently get put into the freezer and turned into jewelry, which is quite morbid and took the conversation in a totally different direction, but still, the waystation program is pretty awesome and I hope it takes off, because I remember seeing these guys all over in summer as a kid and it would be a loss if they disappeared. Glad I got to capture a few for the record either way.