new monarchs

Yesterday in the rain I found three monarch butterflies on plants near the milkweed spot. Two clinging to bent daylilly leaves,

one nearby on the lilac.

I am pretty sure these are newly-emerged butterflies from the caterpillars I fed! They did not have much shelter where they were located, so I put my finger in front of each one, waited for it to step on, sheltered it from the wind with my other hand and carried over to a tithonia plant. I brought my daughter outside and let a butterfly crawl on her hand, before it flew away.