Mourning Cloak

Robert called me out front and showed me this! It was right under our bedroom windowsill. 

So I ran back inside to grab my camera :)

I think this might be a butterfly caterpillar! (we get a lot of moth caterpillars)

After going back inside we looked it up and was pleased to discover that it was in fact going to be a Mourning Cloak butterfly. Yay! The plan was to put it in the habitat once it was totally inside it's chrysalis.

The next day it was not there, we thought maybe a bird got it or something. :( But then a couple days later my mom found it on our driveway. :) So we put it in our butterfly habitat and waited.

I think it was about 3 weeks when Kiera was sitting at the kitchen table working with the cuisinair rods when she heard a fluttering. She pulled the next down from the top of the bookcase and came to tell me "it IS the butterfly Moma!"

The right hindwing was still curled and there were a couple small holes on the right forewing. So I told Kiera that this butterfly might not be able to fly but it sure was thirsty.

It would get stuck on it's back so I would help it turn over. Poor butterfly. :(

I told Kiera, "look the butterfly is looking at you" She smile. :)

We tried to release it but it would just crawl to the top of the net and then fall to the bottom. Our little butterfly only lived about 4 days.

We did learn that the Mourning Cloak butterfly is an early spring butterfly and that it hibernates as a caterpillar during the winter.