An Early Visitor

I had a monarch butterfly visit my milkweed Thursday afternoon! The monarchs don't usually make it to our area until late June, so it was quite a surprise. I think our mild winter enabled her to overwinter here. She was very pale and desperate to lay eggs. They are usually careful to spread out the eggs among the plants. This one deposited several together in multiple spots and even on the dead stalks from last year's cut milkweed plants. She laid at least 2 dozen eggs. I wish we could save them. Even if they survived the fluctuating temperatures we're sure to have at this point in the spring, the milkweed is too small to feed even one caterpillar to chrysalis stage. We didn't have any eggs at all last year and only saw a couple monarchs all summer. I hope this is a better year for them.