Summer guests

	TRR photo by Ed Wesely A 3/16” monarch caterpillar chews its milkweed leaf. (Click for larger image)

Each summer, Alison Smith and I keep watch along the river valley for the first monarch butterflies and explore milkweed plants to find the first eggs and caterpillars.

Last year, around the Fourth of July, Alison discovered a few monarch eggs on milkweed she cultivates in her garden, but we then drew blanks until mid-July.

So I was on target on July 5 when I discovered a dozen monarch eggs in Honesdale, on milkweeds that endure the boiling asphalt of the city’s parking lots and back alleys. Soon the plants will be hacked down or sprayed, but for now they make great egg repositories.

The same afternoon, Alison found a tiny monarch caterpillar at her place.

After Alison and I had congratulated each other, I received a telephone call from the Rutledges who have a farm near Galilee. Their daughter Kelsey, who recently completed fourth grade at the Damascus School, had discovered monarch eggs three weeks ago!

Having nurtured the caterpillars, Kelsey has welcomed eight jade-green chrysalises that will soon hatch.