Grayson has often talked about raising monarchs when he was young. They would find the caterpillars on milkweed at the local canal, and watch them as they ate and grew, morphed into a chrysalis, and emerged a beautiful monarch butterfly. Unfortunately, over the years, monarchs have all but disappeared around here. I heard about a community monarch release and Gray and I decided to go. 250 butterflies flying free, landing on the flowers, trees ... and people. It was pretty awesome to see. This was Saturday, August 17, 2019.
As I checked back into the Facebook post where I'd heard about the event, I saw someone posting about a Monarch group on there. Who knew? I guess there ARE groups for everything. I've joined it, and have learned a lot more about monarchs, and I now know they are still spotted in Utah. We were even able to obtain an egg from someone who had found some. We have a milkweed plant in our yard, one I've let grow just to attract any possible monarchs (they feed on flowers but lay eggs only on milkweed, which is what the caterpillars consume), so we had plenty of food for its voracious appetite.
Unfortunately, our little guy didn't make it.
We aren't sure what happened :(
We'll be keeping an eye out for any of the beautiful orange butterflies flying free.
No comments:
Post a Comment