Back to School and Monarch Butterflies

It almost that time of the year.  The signs have been everywhere for weeks, if you wanted to look.

What time am I talking about?

The start of a new school year.  In Mid-Michigan, the students have one more glorious week with not responsibilities before returning to classes on Tuesday September 2nd.   Most of the teachers report back to work some time this week.  My wife had to report back to work today.  It was the first time her wake-up alarm has gone off at 5:45AM since the middle of June.

Late August/early September is not just back to school time.  It's also Monarch Butterfly season.  for the last couple of weeks, we have been looking over the local milkweed patches searching for Monarch caterpillars.  Right now we over thirty Monarch in some stage of development hanging out in our kitchen.  Over twenty of them are in chrysalis.  We have released two adults (both males) so far, but should have many more emerge during the next week.

Our first adult Monarch of the year - found as a caterpillar and raised in our house

Some of our Monarch caterpillars and chrysalises