Today may mark the end of the monarch butterfly season in my yard. This pupa is the very last that I’ve found. He attached himself to the end post of the rail on my front steps on September 22nd.

Then shed his caterpillar skin, leaving it perched on top of his pupa form like a funny little hat.

I’ve been checking on him regularly. Last night I saw that he was getting close to emerging.

I was a little worried about him because he attached sideways instead of hanging directly under something- but he obviously knew what he was doing. Here is what I found this morning.

He was stretching his wings right below.

There were a few years where we didn’t see any monarchs in our yard at all, and I didn’t know if they would ever return. Still, we always left the milkweed- carefully mowing around it wherever it popped up. Last year we had a few monarchs, but this year, I’ve seen more in our yard than ever before. It makes me think there is hope for other creatures that are disappearing. In celebration of a great monarch year, I’ll leave you with some of my favorite monarch images. Hope you have a great weekend!

For more monarch posts:

https://yardgonewild.net/2018/09/07/milkweed-rules/

https://yardgonewild.net/2018/09/19/its-a-girl/ with a video of a Monarch emerging