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Thursday, August 8, 2013

Capturing Caterpillars - Second Attempt

You may remember that my kids wanted to find and capture a caterpillar this summer and then keep it through the cocoon stage until it hatched into a Monarch Butterfly.  Our first attempt at finding the allusive critter ended in failure.  Since then, I have seen more Monarch Butterflies flitting about, so I thought it was a good day to make a second try at caterpillar hunting.  We arrived at the teeball field, where we hunted last time, only to discover that the ENTIRE field had been mowed recently.  The kids were very upset and demanded to know WHY "someone wrecked our butterfly field?"
 After venting their disgust, the kids quickly climbed back out of the depths of despair and found other things to do - like pick wildflower bouquets (could someone please explain to me the difference between wildflowers and weeds?  Is there really a difference? Is one woman's weed another woman's wildflower?)
 Eventually, after wandering around the edges of the field for a while we did find some small milkweed plants that had sprouted since the mowing.
 We searched carefully, but didn't find a sign of a caterpillar or cocoon.  Maybe I'm going to have to break down and buy one of those mail-order kits, since finding a wild caterpillar is proving rather hopeless.
 Happy bug collecting, everyone!





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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

There was tons of milkweed on the Plank Road Trail... Could you try there?

- Aaron

Dana said...

I forgot about that - we'll have to wander on over there one of these days.

jmommymom said...

We've been disappointed many times when we had a goal connected with our nature explorations. On the other hand, when we have gone out to play, the kids have discovered so many things. It's great your kids found something else to enjoy during your outing.