Monarch Update 2015: Final

byLabman

79.2K followers

Updated 9 years ago

Happy and Sad today. My last Monarch hatch occurred yesterday.

First thing in the morning I welcomed 3 girls to the world. The final Chrysalis was darkening.

But, one hatchling from yesterday failed to fully emerge from her Chrysalis. Apparently her abdomen stuck to the Chrysalis casing and she was unable to fully emerge. Unable to get free, her wings dried before they were fully expanded. A sad sight.

But the other's were healthy.

And then there was just one left to hatch.

He hatched and his wings dried. As he took his inaugural flight, he was unable to maintain altitude and crashed into a dog.

I rescued him before she got irritated by the tickling feet. Fortunately, he landed on Calli my old girl so she was patient with him.

And off he went to start his journey South.

Sometime during the hatching I lost count of how many were released this year. I think there were at least 26 and maybe even 28 that successfully hatched and left on their migration. The mix was slightly more females than males. Only 10% didn't survive.

In the wild 90% don't make it to maturity so this action of mine has added to the success of the flock. Every little bit helps.

I hope you enjoyed the journey with me. With luck we will see another shot of the migration on weather radar. Like was captured last year.

https://my.wealthyaffiliate.com/labman/blog/a-monarch-update