Monarch Chronicles 2018 - Finis

This is Monarch #224 to be released this year, the final monarch from my 2018 nursery.  Well, technically, he won't be released until tomorrow since it is just too chilly today with no sun.  I did take him out to the garden for a quick snack, though, and returned him to his enclosure with some freshly picked flowers.  It will be bittersweet saying goodbye tomorrow.

This is my 4th year raising monarchs, most of them from eggs or first instar caterpillars found on milkweed in my garden.  I had some failures this year and lost about a dozen caterpillars to some sort of bacteria that I suspect was passed from the female who laid the eggs.  In addition, another 5 monarchs were either unable to pupate or unable to emerge properly - this is usually the result of something sort of deformity.  Each failure is a small heartbreak.  But I console myself with the knowledge that in the wild only about 3-5% of eggs ever survive to become monarchs.

Between 8 August and today, I released:
117 Males
107 females
Of those, 108 flew in memory of a specific person, many requested by people right here on Blip.  And some flew for people I've lost.  

Hubs and I headed into NYC this morning and picked up my bestie, Kura, before heading to B&H Photo (Mecca for photographers).  I traded in some old gear, including my beloved "Big Daddy" (Tamron 200-500 lens) and then headed into the store and bought a new not-so-big Daddy, a Sigma 100-400 lens.  Got a good deal on it and it will fill a gap in my current arsenal of lenses.  Put it on the D850 as soon as I got home and took it for a quick spin, including this shot.  I've rented this lens several times so there isn't really any learning curve.  It's a little heavier than my 300 mm lens, but still quite manageable without a tripod.  I will put it through its paces over the next few days.

Back home and doing some chores around the garden, getting ready for winter.  Ugh.  The older I get, the less I enjoy the cold weather.  That said, I do enjoy the snow when its coming down.

And now, two weeks until I leave for Costa Rica!

Cheers.
Debbi