This spring, my local park (Parkview Park) got a grant to install a butterfly enclosure. I started visiting it almost daily.
Inside the enclosure, there is a poster showing the life cycle of Monarch butterflies.
I enjoyed seeing these stages in real life this summer.
Here is an egg on a milkweed leaf (I hope). I had trouble finding them and sometimes wondered if it was white sap from the plant on it. So, I put them into the plastic bowl and hoped.
The next stage is a caterpillar. They start off very tiny and eat only milkweed. As time goes on, they get bigger.
When they are ready, they hang themselves upside down in a J shape.
I wanted to see a caterpillar make the chrysalis but never got to.The chrysalises started out light green and slowly developed some gold sparkles as time went by. Then, they become transparent with the butterfly visible inside.
When it got this far, I knew that I’d see a butterfly in a day or two.
Here is a butterfly that landed in the butterfly garden after release.
The day after I attended my first release gathering, the sound of the girl saying “stretch” every time the butterfly opened its wings ran through my mind for hours at work.
Later in the summer, Lisa Salb began sticking numbered stickers to their wings. If other people find them, they can enter them online and track their path. I hope some fly to Mexico and I hear about it.
