Henry – The Monarch Butterfly

On the last day of October Marjo found Monarch Butterfly laying almost motionless between our flower pots. I published a post last November 6^th on her find. Well, five weeks later he has a name, his own bedroom and feeding station. I don’t think there is a better name for Monarch Butterfly than Henry, is there? Once a week Marjo buys fresh flowers that serve as his bedroom and this is where he spends most of his time. His day starts around 10:30 when the sunroom warms up, then it is feeding time. He just crawls on hand and with an eye dropper we put few drops of sugar and water solution on his feet that act as sensors. He feeds for about 5 minutes and then it is play time that usually consists of flying and crawling around south window screen. He doesn’t fly too well, part of his wing is missing. I think that he was caught in an air turbulence from a car or truck and he got injured, maybe that’s why he missed the migration window. We have no idea if he will survive the winter but apparently monarchs that come out in late summer, the last generation, live up to 9 months, so, who knows. For now we have a small reminder of summer so we just enjoy this un-usual experience.

From close up he looks like a monster.

Feeding time...

followed by time to play...

...and around 3:30 it is time for bed.

Monarch Butterfly – Unexpected Visitor

While we were cleaning the garden and getting it ready for winter Marjo found Monarch Butterfly resting on its side, almost motionless, on the pavement and between dahlia flower pots. It was a shocking discovery since we had already 5 days of hard frost and another 5 days of normal frost. It was a bad start to fall. Anyway, Marjo took him inside our sunroom and placed him on a dahlia that was just cut and placed in a vase. He grabbed the flower immediately and started to open and close his wings. Ten days later he is more active than ever but now we wonder how long can he survive? The sunroom is kept at minimum 14 °C and there is always supply of water and flowers and we know that in their winter grounds in Mexico and California they do not do too much, just waiting their time to move north again. I will post about any changes or happening.

Oh, why do I call this butterfly “him”? Males have a tear drop mark close to bottom of their wings.

Ten days later. Doing better than ever