The first Monarch arrived in my yard later than usual to lay some eggs. I saw tiny caterpillars, but they disappeared quickly. There was another one laying eggs a few days ago. Hope they will be more successful. I didn’t plan to raise anything this year, but found some tiny Spicebush caterpillars on potted plants. So it was easy enough to stick them in a tent. Doing well so far I think. Hard to tell with them being in their leaf pockets most of the time. Just released another Rosy maple moth from the caterpillars we raised last Summer. Here is a picture of it from this afternoon when it was still working on its wings.

I've only seen 1 monarch (several days ago), and it was in too much of a hurry for a photo. Hopefully the monarchs will bounce back from very low overwintering numbers.

The first caterpillars of note in my backyard are red admirals, at least a dozen of them in folded leaves on one small clump of nettles.

typical folded leaf