A Small Miracle in the Garden

     This morning at dawn, we went out to check on the chrysalis we named Remus, which we believed was the last one remaining of the  brood. We were worried. Generally, if a Monarch is to emerge, it does so within 14 days. We were waking up to day 15. In the flat early light, he didn't look good. Milky, with no sign of the transparency that precedes eclosure. For the first time, we faced the possibility of zero survival from the eggs laid in May.  And we had had eleven caterpillars, before the paper wasps starting picking the caterpillars off like assassins. For Remus, perhaps the cold and rain were just too harsh an environment to endure. 
     Monarchs emerge in the morning, to give time for wing-filling, air-drying, feeding, and first flight. As Rick wandered the garden a little before 9 AM, just checking if something missed was active, he was startled to see, hanging under a leaf in the rain-battered phlox, a previously undiscovered Monarch hanging from the chrysalis from which it had just emerged. A small miracle. 

     After hanging under the leaf for a couple hours, she (we named her Doris) finally climbed up to the top of the phlox for first feeding. 

     At the same time, a pristine Eastern Tiger Swallowtail was celebrating the blooming of the butterfly bushes and the tall verbena, favorites  of our flying friends. 

     

     And what of Remus? In the warm sunshine of early afternoon, he presented quite differently, with signs of wing patterns showing through the exterior of his chrysalis. Continuing the resurrection of the day, we now believe we might have a second new Monarch tomorrow. Look below and decide for yourself.