Caterpillar time

There were eight monarch caterpillars ranging from about a centimeter to full grown.  I picked the "cent" off the swamp milkweed which was still recovering from the aphid infestation and added it to the swarm on the butterfly milkweed.  Several of those were chowing down on the flowers.  I don't know if milkweed flowers were tastier or more tender or if this was a strategy to discourage wasps that might be caterpillar hunters.  If the milkweed sets no seed, that seems counterproductive in the long run.

Black swallowtail caterpillars ate a potted parsley down to the roots.  I dou't know what they did when they ran out of parsley - there was no other suitable food plant in the front yard.  In the back yard, I could just barely see some very young caterpillars on a parsley plant.  Four larger caterpillars, but still first instar, were on the rue which can take care of itself.  At least, it has never appeared to suffer from too many caterpillars.

A cloudless sulphur proved too fast for me to capture.  I did get a bird grasshopper.  I rescued another, different grasshopper that was drowning.  It was light brown and mottled like bark.  I also saved a skink that had found the top step of the ladder but was stuck there, cold and wet and looking sad.  Nevertheless, it tried to swim away from me.

A titmouse was unwilling to visit the feeder while we sat outside.  The beauty berries were rapidly turning purple.  The spartina was blooming.  Two days after the new moon, the tide was still quite low.