Happiness Is a Monarch

Knowing how the monarchs are struggling after yet more habitat loss combined with a very damaging winter, I felt incredible hope when I saw this female monarch in my yard this morning. I think she was laying eggs on a few of the leaves, but I need to take a look at the milkweed tomorrow morning to be sure. I really hope she was.

I couldn’t get a closer image, because she zoomed away in our busy backyard, but at least I have documentation!

So far this year, I’ve seen an enormous number of butterflies, including several species I hadn’t seen before in my yard. Our dill and parsley are great fun at the moment. My son counted 20 black swallowtail caterpillars, but I have a feeling there are more. They are so much fun to photograph — no wonder they are probably the best known caterpillar next to the monarch.

We found two of these next caterpillars today — I think they are some sort of moth of the silkworm family, but I couldn’t narrow it down. They were both under oaks, so that’s what I returned them to.

Here’s another view. Look at those cool white spots between all the spines — I didn’t notice them until I looked at the photographs. Can anyone ID it?

And look, our first Question Mark butterfly! I thought this was a leafwing for awhile, but I couldn’t ID it as one. Finally I realized it was a Question Mark, making its name very appropriate, in my opinion. But it’s apparently been given the name because of markings on its hindwing. Personally, I find the markings as a “?” a stretch, but oh well!

So far it’s already been a great wildlife year. I’m so looking forward to the months to come. The dragonflies have been amazing, not that they wait around for me to get my camera. And I saw a large swallowtail, possibly a tiger swallowtail, but my dog ran past and scared it off the lime tree it was interested in. DRAT.