How to get started – Raising Monarch Butterflies!

It’s summer and Monarch butterflies have finally started to arrive in Ontario.
During the winter months Monarchs hibernate in Mexico and migrate to Canada in June and July to breed.
For me, that’s a beautiful reminder that summer is here, and our family has enjoyed raising Monarch butterflies in our own backyard for several years now.
Raising Monarch butterfly larvae is very easy, and it’s a great way to teach children about the Monarch butterfly life cycle and Metamorphosis in general.
Children love to follow and watch each species development stage up close.
It’s quite mesmerizing, watching a newly hatched Monarch emerging from its cocoon and taking its first flight over your gardens.
Through trial and error, we have found some great tips to share so you can learn how to find Monarch caterpillars (or eggs), and how to raise the caterpillars.
You don’t need to purchase any fancy equipment or a Monarch rearing kit.  All the items I am using are reusable and recycled household containers and wet floral foam blocks, which can be purchased at a Dollar Store, Walmart or a Florist (most expensive).

Read more about the right containers, here

To get started, I recommend using these items:

• various empty Tupperware style containers (with lid)
• cleaned yogurt cups (small single portion cups)
• wet floral foam block
• newspaper
• a medium sized Rubbermaid style container (10l) with a lid (holes in the top) is required once caterpillars get larger
• or if you have, a small/medium terrarium with a screen cover. However, I find the light weight plastic containers are much easier to move and clean than a glass aquarium/terrarium.

Finding Monarch Butterfly Larvae or caterpillars

1. Look for eggs or tiny Monarch caterpillar larvae on the underside of milkweed plants.
Milkweed are the only host plant for Monarch caterpillars and they cannot survive without them.

• Pinch off the whole leaf or a large section around the eggs.
• Gently place the leaves into a small container. I like to place a piece of newspaper on the container bottom to absorb extra moisture and prevent mold.
• Open lid daily to allow for fresh air to come in.

Pictured above, white, glossy Monarch Caterpillar eggs, just laid onto Mexican Milkweed plant.

2. Caterpillars are hatching
After the second to third day you will notice the eggs have turned from white to a gray/blackish colour, which means that the tiny caterpillars are about to hatch. It takes about three to four days after an egg is laid for the caterpillar to hatch.

This tiny, transluscent appearing Monarch caterpillar has just emerged from its egg shell. Caterpillars will eat the leftover egg shell and then move on to “munching” on milkweed leaves. Now it’s time to move them to a slightly bigger container that contains freshly picked leaves.
The safest way to move these tiny caterpillars is to move the whole leaf or cut off the part the caterpillar is resting on. I make sure never to touch them at this stage as they are very hard to see and are extremely fragile.

Pictured above are seven small Monarch caterpillars in varies sizes. They are only a few days old.

Once they get to this size, you must move them to a larger container. 

Read the next page now on how to find the best containers for raising Monarch Caterpillars so

they can successfully transform into their next stage, the chrysalis!

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An Ontario Gray Treefrog lives in Our Garden & How we raised thousands of Tree Frog babies!

Mom, there is a strange bird in the garden!
The sun had set, and my daughter was pointing at our backyard window while we all listened to this loud and different sounding “bird call,” which resembled a laughing sound. “It’s a Mockingbird,” my youngest daughter guessed, while my son was certain that this sound could only come from a species like the Kookaburra! I was pretty sure neither of them was correct, but I was clueless myself, as to which animal was making this noise.
For a few days, we listened and guessed and I went outside with my camcorder to capture and record the calls.
The singing came from somewhere between our above ground pool and cedar hedge, but every time I crept closer to the source, it suddenly stopped.
This little hide and seek game ended after a small “stake-out”, when I finally discovered the source of the calls, a small gray tree frog, huddled into the crevices of the pool liner!

You can watch him on my video here, as he slowly makes his way from the water, up the wall, into his hiding space!

Gray Tree frogs are said to be living in forest areas, bogs and swamps, but as you can see this one was quite happy with his living quarters in our small town backyard.

As the days went on I was able to watch, tape and record our visitor, as he went about his evening serenades. Long story short, his daily concerts invited some of his amphibian friends and just the other night, I counted six gray tree frogs, sitting and singing on my pool liner!

They may not be as elusive as you’ve thought!

A few days of frog serenades led to hundreds of tiny eggs, found in clusters attached to the pool cover.

Pictured above are the Gray Treefrog eggs, scooped from my pool cover. These were freshly layed eggs, from the previous night.

Watch the video below, which shows thousands of little Tree frog tadpoles swimming on our pool cover.

The first eggs have now transformed into tiny Gray Tree Frog tadpoles, happily swimming in the rain water, collected on our pool cover.
The tadpoles grew on a diet of fall leaves that had accumulated on the cover. We also dropped the occasional fish pellet and (cooked) spinach and lettuce into the water. They do love their spinach!

Pictured above are treefrog tadpoles in various stages of their metamorphosis, Some of these tadpoles still have their tails but have started to form legs.

Time to move from the pool to our garden pond. These twelve treefrog babies now have “lost” their tails, grown legs and transformed into tiny little frogs, eager to explore our backyard!

Information found on the Ontario Gray Treefrog  (Hyla versicolor)
Habitat

Can be found throughout Ontario along habitats that provide a body of water, woodlands, shrubbery, and even orchards.
Treefrogs like to hide in dark, moist places like tree crevices, logs and near swamps and bogs and apparently backyard pool liners!
Once, I also found a treefrog hidden between empty turned over flower pots in my garden.
Treefrogs are very hard to spot, as they can camouflage and blend in perfectly with surrounding vegetation or tree bark.
Treefrogs do overwinter in Ontario and spend the winter under leaf piles.

source: www.ontarionature.org

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Ontario Chipmunk living in my backyard – Loves Peanuts

June 2015 Update: He’s back from his winter sleep and living in under my rock garden and waterfall!

This little guy showed up in early November on my patio porch looking for food
to fill up his burrow

We have had chipmunks in our backyard for several years now.
There always seem to be at least one or two chipmunks around the garden, and they do become quite tame.
Our backyard has a small pond, several Maple trees and a few bird feeders and chipmunks are attracted to the sunflower seeds and peanuts that may drop to the ground.
Before I installed a squirrel baffle on my feeders they were quite eager to even climb the pole, sit inside the feeders and fill up.
Chipmunks can easily get used to hand feeding if you wish.
You can even get them to respond to signals and sounds. My kids got a kick of imitating the chipmunk chirp when they were tossing them nuts. The chipmunks started to look around and come when they heard the sound, knowing they would receive a nutty treat. It’s really cute.

Our chipmunks even became tame enough to climb our legs and sit on the palm of our hands to pick up a nut.

Along the way, we stopped hand feeding them though.
I thought it would be in their best interest to be more cautious. Being afraid will keep them one step ahead of cats and predators and maybe people who are not that fond of the small rodents.

I have never had any problems with chipmunks causing damage to my garden. You may see the odd very small hole in the lawn that connects to one of their burrows. They have never damaged any of my shrubs, flower gardens or trees. At one time, we even had as many as a families of five chipmunks living in our yard.
They were a cute sight, chasing each other around the yard while hunting for maple keys.

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Festival of Birds: Visit the Spring Migration Events and Festivals across Ontario

Festival of Birds 2015

Southwestern Ontario is a Mecca for Birders, and the Spring and Fall migrations are spectacular to watch
at various National and Provincial parks, lakes, and marsh areas.
Enjoy common and elusive species of songbirds, shorebirds, tundra swans and hummingbirds.
New and seasoned Bird Lovers will be greeted by Birding Festivals, demonstrations, guided hikes and Beginner walks.  Grab your binoculars and see what’s going on this spring:

Festival of Birds at Point Pelee National park

When: May 01 to May 18th, 2015
Where:  Point Pelee National park , Leamington
Offered: Birding Hikes, Bird Photography Walks, Birding 101 for Beginners and more
visit the website FestivalOfBirds.ca here

Rondeau Provincial Park Festival of Flight 2015

When: – May 02, 2015 to May 18, 2015
Where: Rondeau Provincial Park, 18050 Rondeau Park Road,  Morpeth, ON, N0P 1X0
Offered: guided Bird Hikes, Birders Breakfast & Lunch (served by the Friends of Rondeau), Natural Heritage Education Programming, Visitor Centre, Store,
Big Day Competition  –  test your bird ID skills and join the Big Day Birding Challenge!

May 09, 2015 to May 10, 2015

Visit the www.ontarioparks.com/park/rondeau or www.RondeauProvincialpark.ca/birding

Presqu’ile Provincial Park, Warblers and Whimbrels Weekend

When:  May 16th to May 17, 2015
Where: Presqu’ile Provincial Park, 328 Presqu’ile Parkway  Brighton, Lake Ontario
Offered: View colorful warblers and elusive Whimbrel as they migrate North. bird walks, bird-banding, and evening programs. BBQ fundraiser.  336 species of birds have been seen at Presqu’ile Provincial Park
visit the website: www.ontarioparks.com/park/presquile for details

MacGregor Point Huron Fringe Birding Festival

When: May 22,  to May 31, 2015
Where: MacGregor Point Provincial Park, Lake Huron, R.R.1 Port Elgin, Ontario, Canada N0H 2C5
Offered:  guided hikes with focus on birds, wildflowers, butterflies and insects, bird identification workshops, nature photography, banquet ,special guest speaker.
visit friendsofmacgregor.org or www.ontarioparks.com/park/macgregorpoint

Birding in Ontario

Great information about Birding, how to get started, where to go and what you will need, are posted on the
Ontario Parks website at www.ontarioparks.com/birding

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