Yesterday I spotted my first Monarch butterfly eggs; today, on a walk to prepare for an upcoming guided tour of the Preston Nature Preserve, one of Avalonia's true jewels, I combed the milkweeds and located a very young, perhaps just a day old, Monarch caterpillar making all the right survival moves. These youngsters can only thrive on common milkweed, but the leaves, besides being poisonous to eat, are also full of a latex that comes out rapidly and often drowns the little guys. To survive, the caterpillars first "mow the lawn" and clear out all the hairs that protect the plant. Then the young Monarchs-to-be dig a little trench that relieves the latex pressure and creates a small island of safe green, which the caterpillar proceeds to eat. It sequesters the poisons in safe storage places within its body and then moves on to another patch of milkweed, repeating the necessary process over and over again.