Monarch eggs in Haddam, sightings from Westport

[ButterflyPR at comcast.net]

Hi All,

Have you ever wanted to raise Monarch caterpillars?  Now would be a great time!  I just came from Haddam Meadows--I needed some extra milkweed to supply the caterpillars I'm giving out to my fellow girl scout families.  Anyway, I only went to one small area, along the drive towards the boat launch, a few feet in, where the grass is mowed and/or people park regularly, so there's not really a great chance of caterpillar survival.  Anyway, I found 
20+ eggs and three first instar caterpillars.  I did not have time to check out the rest of the loop, but there were monarchs flying, so I'll bet there are many more!  But if you do collect some, be sure to bring home extra milkweed, not dogbane for them--there was also a lot of dogbane growing in the same area.

Also, yesterday we were in Westport and saw:
3 Monarchs
3 Tiger Swallowtais
Numerous Peck's Skippers
1 Tawny-edged Skipper
Numerous Cabbage Whites
1 larger skipper, possibly Broad-winged, though it didn't seem quite that large
2 Red Admirals
2 Clearwing Moths
and 1 anglewing sp.--it didn't stick around long enough for me to check which one!

Diane
on the road