Late afternoon the day before yesterday, I was walking around my garden when what should I see, but a large orange butterfly.  I immediately thought it might be a Monarch as it seemed too large to be a Painted Lady.  It must have flitted around and through the garden for a good 10 – 15 minutes before it finally rested with its wings open in a spot where I could get a photograph.

Male Monarch Butterfly

It was clearly a male Monarch butterfly.

I was amazed to find him again, yesterday — 24 hrs. later, still in the garden.  I keep fantasizing that he’s feeling that he has found a spot where the world is as it ought to be.  There still seem to be plenty of nectar flowers available — boneset, goldenrod and a butterfly bush. Plus there’s plenty of milkweed should a female arrive to lay eggs.  (I wish this male could somehow get a female to join him.)

I reported this sighting to Journey North (http://www.learner.org/jnorth/sightings/query_result.html?record_id=1407963782).