A Royal Visitor

 

Top "A Mid-Morning Snack" Bottom "A Royal Treat"

I have been waiting for five years to see a Monarch butterfly in my garden. They were always a favorite, and I especially learned to love them in grade school. In third grade we spent a lot of time learning their life cycle and were encouraged to bring the boldly striped caterpillars in with plenty of milkweed leaves to feed them. 

There was an excited pause in the regular school day when one of them would emerge out of their chrysalis. We waited impatiently for them to pump up those collapsed wings and for our teacher to say it was safe to escort this wonderful new creature outside. If concentrated kid love and energy could protect anything, our class butterflies were triple wrapped for a safe, long journey!

Photo ©2023 Joanna Katzen

Earlier this year I read a long news article about how there are less oyamel fir forests in Mexico and less Monterey pines and cypresses in California for the Monarchs to hibernate in, and less milkweeds for the hungry caterpillars to eat so there are less Monarch butterflies, around 80-90 percent less since the 1990's! Honestly, I was so surprised and saddened that the numbers have dropped so much in my lifetime, no wonder I haven't been seeing them in my garden.

She seemed to like the plain yellow ones best!

 

The morning of August 18th this year, I was looking out the dining room window and happened to catch a flash of orange out in my sunflowers, could it be?!? Grabbing my iPhone I carefully and quietly walked out into the yard, hoping I wouldn't scare this visitor but definitely wanting some photos before they might flit away. 

This monarch was ignoring the zinnias, cosmos and blanket flowers but seemed to be enjoying the sunflowers. I held still as I could while snapping photos as she floated round and round, tasting and sipping her favorites for a magical 15 minutes and then she was gone. 

"A Mid-Morning Snack"

Even though I want to, it's probably not sensible to try and grow milkweed in my tiny garden, but I also learned that sunflowers and asters are a good nectar source for adult Monarchs, so at least I got that part right in providing a mid-morning snack for one!

What beautiful thing do you wait to see every year?

 Happy creating!

>^-^<

Tina 

This isn't the exact article I read, but it is still very helpful.More information about the Monarch Butterfly. 

The stunning photo of the Monarchs sipping from New England asters was taken by a friend on Facebook, Joanna Katzen, she kindly agreed to let me use her photo for reference, thanks so much Joanna!