{"id":630,"date":"2026-09-12T10:42:47","date_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:42:47","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/?p=630"},"modified":"2026-09-12T10:52:09","modified_gmt":"2026-09-12T14:52:09","slug":"a-happy-beginning","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/2026\/09\/12\/a-happy-beginning\/","title":{"rendered":"A happy beginning"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Of course, it is rather late in the year for this to be called a “beginning” properly, but nevertheless it is a beginning. And it all began earlier on August 1 when we took in two monarch caterpillars.<\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

The two caterpillars at home in a mesh cube filled with milkweed cuttings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The caterpillar on the left (above) is clearly visible, whereas the one on the right is somewhat obscured.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Three days later each caterpillar formed a successful chrysalis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A little over ten days later a monarch butterfly emerged from the chrysalis on the left.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above, one can see that the monarch-to-be is ready to exit its chrysalis.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And an hour after the first monarch appeared, the second monarch came out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

A few hours later, both monarchs had finished “growing” their wings.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Later in the same day, both monarchs exercised their wings. By the gland enlargement on the second-nearest to the body hind wing, the monarch is a male. Actually, both monarchs were males.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Rainy weather meant that Sue and I had to delay the release of the monarchs until two days later.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Above, the monarch in Sue’s hand took flight almost immediately and ascended well over the roof in a few seconds.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The second monarch hesitated a bit, allowing a clear photo.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The monarch took a test hop and flew to the top of the cube.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

After a minute of thinking things through, the monarch began flapping and ascending.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The monarch, in powered flight, leaves the area.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

And so two more monarchs joined the flight south to Mexico to see about the next generation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Of course, it is rather late in the year for this to be called a “beginning” properly, but nevertheless it is a beginning. And it all began earlier on August 1 when we took in two monarch caterpillars.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[30,15],"tags":[28,5,14],"class_list":["post-630","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-butterfly","category-wildlife","tag-butterfly","tag-photography","tag-wildlife"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=630"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":653,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/630\/revisions\/653"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=630"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=630"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lookoutnow.net\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=630"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
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