I Guess We Will See Monarch Eggs Soon
We spotted a monarch butterfly today hanging out the rose bush that’s next to the milkweed. It didn’t seem to be bothering with the milkweed, which seemed odd. I would keep flying up and circling, then landing back on the rose.
I went out to get a closer look at it and see if I couldn’t get its picture. It took a few tries since it seemingly didn’t want to sit still. The sun didn’t help matters for me to try to get my phone to focus on it, as I couldn’t really see the screen nor could I see the butterfly all that well.
Finally, I got the camera on it, and it was staying still long enough. Something looked odd about it, but I couldn’t tell what outside in the bright sunlight.
male and female monarch butterfly on pink swamp milkweed flower
</figcaption>
</figure>
Once I brought my phone inside where it wasn’t blindingly bright, I could see the pictures I got. I realized then what looked odd about it. It was a male on a female. That explains why it kept circling but not landing on the milkweed flowers. It was the male waiting for a female.
Hopefully, this means we’ll soon have caterpillars. We’ve noticed small notches in some leaves, and ends eaten off, but have not as of yet spotted any caterpillars.