We had such a fun time watching our Monarch larvae build cocoons and emerge as butterflies! We had 11 butterflies emerge over six days. Eight were females and three were males.
We brought the first five butterflies that emerged over to the North Branch Nature Center. The naturalists taught us how to tag the butterflies before releasing them.
The preschool students also got to learn about tagging and releasing the Monarchs. In subsequent days, we released the Monarchs as the emerged at the library. Youth volunteers, homeschool students and a day care that was visiting the library all had a chance to see a tag and release.
First we scooped the butterfly out of the habitat.
We had to use gentle hands and be very careful.
Then we carefully put the sticker on the underside of the wing of the butterfly. The sticker has a combination of numbers and letters that will be sent into an educational organization called Monarch Watch.
We will keep you updated if any of our tagged Monarchs are found in Mexico!