She’s Back!

She's back! Our beautiful female, Fiona, returned to my garden late this afternoon. Again she went straight for the Meadow Blazingstar Liatris, but then she flitted around my Swamp milkweed 'Cinderella' (Asclepias incarnata), pausing briefly at about a dozen flower clusters - but not for nectar... She was laying eggs! (Ovipositing).

Knowing that only around 2 in 100 eggs ever make it to an adult butterfly, the eggs were carefully collected and placed in a mesh enclosure to keep predators and parasites out. Half stayed with me and half are being tended by a very experienced monarch foster mom in SE Portland, in order to spread the risk.

With fewer than 2,000 monarchs in total at the California overwintering grounds this past winter, I feel as though I am holding their future in my hands.