Wild Wednesday ...

... Monarch Butterfly #26.  

We had our last monarch butterfly emerge in our 2024 butterfly nursery today.  And we were able to tag her ... mainly because I'm a dumb a**!

Let me explain ... 

If you recall back in September we attended a monarch tagging event at Jacobsburg State Park.  Since this was so fun when we got home I ordered a tagging kit for what I thought would be for the 2025 season.  So I was surprised when I received the tagging kit in the mail the other day.  I called their customer service department as I was quite confused ... thinking maybe they sent this year's out to me and then I would also get one for next year.  Nope.  This was definitely an error on my part.  Doh!  

So this lovely female will be the only butterfly to be tagged by us this year as she is the last one we have to release ... and the rest of the tags will go unused.  

It should be fun to see if anyone finds this monarch on her journey to Mexico.  I've registered the tag at monarchwatch.org if you'd like to follow along.  Anyone that spots the tag will hopefully log their find on this website.  But we shall see ...

Anyway ... she was released in the memory of everything lost in our Southern States due to Hurricane Helene.  But mainly for the Lake Lure Flowering Bridge ... which could have acted as one of her waypoints on her way south.

Thanks to Cailleach for keeping Wednesday's wild.