Some New Monarch Butterflies Ready To Fly South
Freshly emerged monarch butterfly drying itself on the hibiscus flower.
After we got home from geocaching today, Molly looked out the window and saw a monarch sitting on a hibiscus flower. She ended up roosting underneath of it overnight and flew away this morning. We knew some caterpillars had wandered off because we saw them, then the next day they were all gone. There were three more butterflies on the neighbor’s bushes
They stayed well hidden this year under the leaves, unlike previous years. I am not certain why it was different this year, but the caterpillars even managed to hide themselves under one leave left on the milkweed when they ate it down to the bare stems. We’ve seen large caterpillars throughout the summer, but they kept disappearing, and we could find no chrysalis anywhere.