It's a boy!

This summer my daughters and I raised Monarch butterflies, watching them as they grew from caterpillar to chrysalis to butterfly.  We found one final caterpillar on the milkweed plants about a month ago and transferred him to our butterfly hotel.  Usually they spend about 10 days in their chrysalis stage, but for some reason, this one remained in this stage for almost three weeks!  I really wasn't expect it to hatch, but then one day, about a month after we found him as a caterpillar, he finally emerged as this beautiful butterfly!  My daughter asked, "Which way is Mexico, momma?" since Monarchs born in late fall make the long migration to Mexico or southern California.  She then decided that we needed to release him on the south side of the yard so he wouldn't have as far to fly!  LOL  Good luck on your journey, Mr. Monarch!