milkweed tell-all, part 3 of 5, visitors

post #181
     It's Sunday again, so here is another selection from my milkweed collection and more memories of my amazement.

       I start with an iPhone overview of location #2, midday in early September, 2013:

  
      BEFORE YOU LOOK AT THE NEXT THREE PHOTOS, TRY TO SEE A VISITOR ON THE PLANT!  HOW GLAD I AM I TOOK TIME TO MAKE THIS PHOTO (even though the midday light is rarely the best) BECAUSE I WOULD NOT OTHERWISE HAVE BEEN LOOKING CLOSELY AT THE PLANT TO SEE WHAT WAITED FOR ME -- the unexpected!  And it is also true I might have not gotten into the habit of looking, looking, looking from then on, taking a chance each time for wonder.

     I was so taken by the frog that I went back that very evening to see if it was still there.  I was rewarded by seeing another visitor, plus the frog had moved -- to the leaf just below where it had been before:

I love the frog's shadow through the leaf.  I think he or she thinks I can't see any frogs, thanks to their turning to green.  In any case, there is no attempt to escape.

The seed pods are beginning their autumn voyage from green to gray.

       Can you now find the frog in this evening overview photo??  (Hint: look in the middle of the photo)

 
  Five days later, I start seeing more milkweed bugs.  I still am not sure if they help with things or if too many of them damage the plant.  Again, my lack of biology training slows me down a bit.  I suspect an overabundance of them means trouble for the plant, and, were there monarch butterfly eggs, definitely trouble for the monarchs.

I loved seeing this spider returned and still at work. I hope it is not one of the spiders that eat butterfly eggs....

      About ten days later, I discovered LOCATION #3 along the road on the way to town -- with an actual place across from these several plants where I could pull the car off the road.  I found wonders here, too, but I will wait until next week (part 4 of 5) to show more than this single photo from there.  Of course I had been driving by this place all summer without paying full attention.  I am so grateful I finally came to my senses....so to speak.

    
          So, for now, Hey, good lookin' -- to you all.