A Brand New Female Monarch from Our Yard!

It was about 2 in the afternoon, and my husband came running into the house. "Come NOW!" he hollered. I grabbed my camera and followed. What I discovered when I reached the driveway was a brand spanking new female monarch butterfly, fresh from the milkweed patch!

At first, she was walking and crawling on things. She climbed the leg of a chair. She walked across the grass. She flittered a little, but did not take flight. She had just been born into butterfly-hood, and she was carefully drying her wings.

I thought she might need some encouragement, so I went and got a decorative butterfly stake, a pretty thing about a foot or so high, with a butterfly on top. My friend Anne had sent it. I thought the sight of a fellow "butterfly" might help; I also suspected she might flit to the stake, sit there, and then fly!

There had been another monarch butterfly at first, my husband said, but it was already gone. It had immediately flittered into the air and flown away, high above the treetops! I don't know what that one was but this one is a textbook female. Look at the wider black wing veins, and the lack of a pheromone spot on each hind-wing.

And then, around 3:30, as I was watching and videotaping her, the female monarch began to more aggressively climb the individual blades of grass. She flapped her wings. She flapped some more. And suddenly, she was FLYING! SHE WAS FLYING, BABY!!!!! Up she went! Into the blue sky! Above the treetops! I couldn't help myself. It was so beautiful a sight that I sat and wept!

This perfect little girl has a long journey ahead of her now. She is a member of a very special generation (called by some the Methuselah Generation) that will live - instead of the normal two to six weeks that a regular monarch lives - up to eight or nine months! 

She will make the journey of 2500 miles or so to the Sierra Madre Mountains of Mexico to overwinter, and finally breed, in springtime, and then return to the southern U.S. and begin laying eggs on milkweed. And so the cycle begins again.

If you are in their pathways of flight, the monarchs need your help. We need you to minimize the use of poison in your yards. We need you to stop being so ridiculous with the constant freaking MOWING of things. Let it grow!

We need you to plant native plants. We need you to plant both host plants (milkweed for the baby caterpillars) and nectar plants (flowers for the butterflies!). Can you do these things for the butterflies? Can you help? We swear: WE WILL!!!

As we looked at the photos last evening, I said to my husband, "Can you believe we didn't even think to name her?" And so we kicked around, for the first time in our lives, GIRL NAMES. He suggested Amelia Earhart, as this girl is AMAZING at flying. But let me change it up a bit: she's Amelia, yes, but her last name is Air-Heart. She flew up high into the air and stole our hearts.

Our soundtrack song for this amazing girl, a strong and competent aviator, is Tom Petty and Stevie Nicks, with Learning to Fly. Fly strong and proud, our beautiful girl! <3

More about monarchs:
Monarch Migration
The Monarch Butterfly Super Generation
How to Support Monarch Butterflies
Migration in Danger!