Much to our great joy, we welcomed Spicebush Swallowtail Numero Uno into the world on Monday! Being a sneaky little thing, it emerged right here in the same room with me in a period of about 30 minutes! I walked by it after making tea and came to blog a bit and a half an hour later when I was walking back into the kitchen to put my cup in the sink, there it was!
What an amazing little face!
I called the kiddos and we took it upstairs to the Monkey Man's room so we could observe it for a bit. It was still very sluggish and allowed us to handle it with care. What an absolutely beautiful little being, so delicate and sweet! It's little feet tickled our skin! It stretched its wings and practiced flying for a bit, then sat in the windowsill, soaking up some sunshine. The Monkey Man adored it, holding it and looking at it from every angle. The Piggy on the other hand was interested in looking at from afar, but had NO desire to hold it. In fact, I could only coax her into getting about a foot away from it! It's strange to me how fearful she is of bugs, mostly since NO ONE in this house has an issue with bugs. We catch them, we handle them, we just LOVE bugs! But she is, and I respect that and let her explore to her comfort level.
Mesmerized...
We kept it for the rest of the day and over night, giving it oranges and sugar water to feed on, then we packed it up on Tuesday and took it to our local nursery and let it go amid all the beautiful spring flowers! As soon as we opened the car door and got the enclosure out, that butterfly started going crazy in the enclosure and we certainly didn't have to tell it twice once the flap was opened. It was out like a flash and gone in an instant, almost like it disappeared into thin air! We sent it off with love and with hopes that it has a good little butterfly life! We were so lucky to have been a part of its re-birth into the world!
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