Tag Archives: monarch butterflies

Favorites

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When you begin a butterfly garden the list of “favorites” seems to grow as the hours go by. Among my favorites lists is taking a stroll in the garden and seeing brand new life. You can see the empty chrysalis in the background of this newly emerged monarch butterfly.

A second stroll through the garden awarded me with this females first flight to a nearby nectar plant.

Plant them and they will come! Nothing is truer than that statement. Find native milkweed, plant nectar plants and the butterflies will flutter to your oasis.

On the lookout

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With the sun shining and temperatures warm, I decided to do some maintenance in the garden. My scorpion tail bush has grown out of control, into the sidewalk, as well as popping up in the most random places, so I decided to do a little trimming.

With my 7 year olds watchful eye, she noticed 4 monarch chrysalis attached to branches I had cut off. I always wonder where the caterpillars disappear, as their chrysalis are not always in plain sight. These four really crawled deep into the vegetation to make their chrysalis. They are now in our butterfly house, so they can emerge safely.

Everywhere

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It’s been amazing to see the amount of monarch caterpillars in the gardens. Even more amazing are the chrysalis that are popping up in and around the garden. Some caterpillars have crawled a good distance to make a chrysalis on my garage doors, to the side of the house, and of course on posts in the garden.

Great to see

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After getting about 8-10 inches of rain in a matter of hours yesterday after an incredibly gloomy start to the day, it was exciting to spot a monarch butterfly enjoying some sweet penta mectar in the garden today.

The sun has not returned, and it’s been on and off rain, with more expected to come today, but the butterflies have returned and the many caterpillars chomping away.

It’s the little things that brighten the day.

https://videos.files.wordpress.com/3cuWPT1c/20240116_112029.mp4

More . . .

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We’ve had a busy couple of days . . . three monarch butterflies emerged Christmas, another yesterday and one today. It never gets old releasing them into the garden.

They hunkered down in our butterfly house Christmas as it rained all day long. They did not waste any time flying away after being released the following day.

Thankfully the sun returned yesterday and today.

This beautiful female sat with me for a little while before climbing onto the gorgeous poinsettia my good friend gifted me for Christmas today.