Sunday, October 17, 2010

Our Butterfly Emerged!
















This is "Butterfly" (as J wanted to call him) a couple hours before he emerged. The cocoon turned a dark black color, and then the wings were visible underneath. Very cool!

















This is what we found after we had left the house for 3 hours to go to our play group. Butterfly had emerged! He was hanging upside down from the cocoon.
















Here is a picture of the cocoon after Butterfly came out.
















J was so excited to hold him! Butterfly would grip onto anything you'd put by his front legs. He would then hang upside down. He was still drying his wings.
















A close-up shot of Butterfly on my finger. Just amazing to see the Lord's handiwork! Seeing the intricate design and colors up close like this was breathtaking.

















When we realized it could be a long time before Butterfly's wings were dry and he would be able to fly, we set him on a plant basket. He ended up staying here a couple more hours just drying in the sun!
















After a couple hours of drying here, we finally saw Butterfly opening and closing his wings. What I suppose was his last exercise before attempting flying.
















I picked him up one more time to look at him up close. His wings were opening and closing and then he took his first flight! He moved too quickly to get a picture of that.
















Here is where he landed after his first flight. He only went a few feet. He did this one more time (took a short flight) and landed for a bit and then the next time we went out to check him, he was gone! What a great experience with our little Butterfly!

Come check out what others are doing at another linkup....Science Sunday!

5 comments:

kewkew said...

So awesome to see your special butterfly. Trying hard not to get jealous. We had 3 monarch caterpillars and only one lived long enough to form a chrysalis. When the butterfly emerged she was crippled
http://totsandme.blogspot.com/2010/09/science-sunday-butterfly-and-frog.html
We nursed her as long as possible, but she finally died. The one benefit was-we did get to see her really close up. It was cool seeing her cling right to the paper towel.
Really cool to see "yours" and how fast they are ready to fly off on their own.

Tea said...

What a beautiful butterfly! It's so special that you got to watch that miracle up close. It is amazing that God thought up something as cool as taking a caterpillar and making it turn into a butterfly!

Ticia said...

Wow, I love monarch butterflies, and keep thinking about planting milkweek to try and get some, but haven't followed through yet.

Thanks for linking up!

Julia said...

How beautiful!! I have never seen a caterpillar change, so I have really loved these posts!

Nicole {tired, need sleep} said...

What a gorgeous monarch! I love the shots you were able to get of it - just gorgeous!

Post a Comment

Please feel free to leave your comments. They are a blessing to me!