Early in the spring, the surprisingly large male raccoon slowly approached the courtyard. The animal stopped barking under the outer bird feeder. He came to his house every night. Two forty gallons of metal trash lined the brick wall. One contains a mixture of birds. It can contain other Nigerien seeds and sorghum. This was a nightclub for Niger Sock and a round bird feeder.
The raccoon waited until he became bold and tried to remove the lids in vain. After a few nights of perseverance, he found a way and lifted the lid off the seedbed. The outdoor light is on. The masked bandit retreated. The next night he came back into the woods and threw it off the cover. The noise and the clutch followed the balcony and the raccoon disappeared. Or we thought. The next morning he seems to have gone back and quietly removes the lid on the sunflower seeds. Then the lid is chained down and closed. Over the next few nights, we heard him try to move the lid. Scratching and murmuring dragged the cats back to the window. Metal noise, beatings and then silence. Hmmm. The light is on. The seed was placed in a seed pot and the lid hung sideways. The older man relaxed, got out of bed, and disappeared into the darkness. A heavy concrete block and heavy umbrella stood, and the seed covers were safe again.
Other racists began to appear at night. One slightly smaller raccoon and three smaller versions. Mom and children. They first dug around the base of the bird feeders and drank from the bird’s nest. As the children grew older, they became more adventurous, often appearing in the afternoons. The workers reflected on the tree, sat on the stage bird feeder, and sowed themselves. The soccer balls tried to get on their feet with the hummingbird pastor. Within a week, the empty feeder, including the ants, was found on the ground, and the rooms were scattered around the yard. It’s not pretty.
Why not use a greenhouse. It would be a good place to hang a Hummingbird pastor, two round bird feeders and a square feeder. The door to the greenhouse was open, with a tropical hibiscus in the west and an avocado plant with sunflowers in the east. Canned lemon grass partially blocked the entrance. Great secrecy. You will never find pastors there. As an incentive to keep the Recon family in the backyard, fragments are laid out on a flat stone.
It took them two nights. The pastors scattered in the greenhouse. Seeds are scattered everywhere, along with pots, young plants, nectar and garden tools. The next night, the pastors returned to the greenhouse, but the door was locked. The window in the door is slightly open for transfer. The next morning, the screen was partially torn, but the enterprise markers were unable to open the window. Since then, the teens have been entertaining themselves by moving around chairs and eating seeds on the ground.
It was a special occasion. If the screen were not disturbed, the monarch chrysalis would not have been attached to the top. The bright green container had golden swarms and some gold dots on the top. Judging by the color, the emperor was moderate in development. When I was in Maryland, was the full-size caterpillar pictured a week ago in Linda Smith? Warm dairy products and red flowers hibiscus attract royals in search of places to lay honey and eggs. The monarch from this crystalis will be part of his generation to fly to the jungles of Mexico. Monarch, the mother who laid the eggs, was part of the early migration.
From late July to early August, kings come from unknown places (yes, no one knows exactly where they came from) to meet, greet, eat, and lay eggs in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas. If these butterflies survive, they will join the largest migration from Canada, which began around August 10, and will not reach Oklahoma by September 20.
Here is some information from Chip Taylor (monarchwatch.org/blog/). The emperor’s migration time, speed, and duration are related to the solar eclipse. Noon is when the sun reaches its peak during the day. Migration begins when the sun’s angle drops below 57 degrees. On August 16 in Lawrence, Kansas, the sun’s angle was 64.52 degrees. Encouraging the butterflies to leave the city on September 7, the angle will drop below 57 degrees. In most places, royal migration lasts 25 to 33 days. When the angle of the sun drops from 57 to 54 degrees (it can be amazing or deceptive), the center point flow (usually many kings) when the sun’s angle drops from 53 to 50 degrees, and when the end descends, the leader’s edge rises. As the sun’s angle decreases from 49 to 46 degrees, smaller, mainly female kings fly. The speed may vary from cold, heat, rain, or wind.
Kings in eastern Dakotas and western Minnesota may not be able to mix with refugees due to hot and dry conditions, but the numbers reported in Texas and Oklahoma could raise these kings to the south in early September and early October. Western Monarch’s migration to California is excellent.
The kings of Oklahoma are the eastern immigrants. Summer ranches include four generations of kings from southern Canada, central and eastern America. That last generation will make the 1,300-mile trek from Shane to Mexico’s tropical rainforest.
It is your turn to help the kings. Establish sites with flowering plants and butterfly basins (deep sand in wet pools).
Oklahoma State Graduate (Plant Pathology) Becky Emerson Carlberg is a teacher, artist, writer and certified Oklahoma Master Gardener and Master. Contact her at Becscience@att.net.