More monarch adventures

As I posted on Sunday, we released the first of our seventeen butterflies that we are raising from caterpillars we found on our milkweed plants in September.

That butterfly was a male.

Yesterday we released monarch butterfly number two.

She, yes it was a female, emerged from her chrysalis sometime early in the morning.

Her chrysalis turned black the night before, with the distinctive dark orange color showing through.

When I checked around 7 am, there she was, a butterfly, calmly hanging from the empty chrysalis skin as her wings dried.

The weather was very warm, so it was a good day to release her.

Since I was away at work, Tony released her in the early afternoon.

He said that as soon as he opened the lid of the hamper the butterfly flew out and up in the air, landing to rest on the leaves of a very large, tall tree with branches hanging close to an orange tree growing in the corner of the backyard.

Unfortunately we don't have any photos of this butterfly. She was so quick.

But here is a photo of mama monarch who still visits the garden and loves the Delta Sunflower, which is ever so slowly drying up, with quite a few flowers on it.