Tagging Monarchs at Northern Hills Prairie

Yesterday I stumbled upon a fun little event in Rochester, just about .5 miles from our house.

So I called up my daughter to see if she'd be interested, 

Unfortunately timing wasn't in her favor as she was to be delivering a meal

  to her cousin who just had a baby, 

sooooo...

I asked if I could take the kids, we haven't had much time together as of late and

 I looked forward to the Audrey, Carson and Me time.

Nets all ready to catch some Monarch's

We went over to Northern Hills Prairie, just down the road from my house where

Quarry hill Nature Center and Zumbro Valley Audubon workers were hosting a

 Catch & Tag Monarch event.

One of the photographers from the event snapped this shot 

of the kids and I as we venture out to the prairie

 Sweet Carson was all about looking for the Monarch's

With a little help from Grandma, both kids nabbed a Monarch 

Do you see Audrey's handsome male Monarch.

If you look close you can see Carson's "girl" in the net.

One of the helpers is retrieving Audrey butterfly from her net

 She even got to hold it

Carson wasn't so sure about holding his butterfly

 but he was pretty proud of his catch.

 Showing the kids the "tagging process"

Audrey about to let her Monarch free

The kids were taught about the Monarch's life cycle and 

migration all the way to Mexico, 

how to tell the boys from the girls,

and they were shown proper netting technique.

On the hunt for more Monarchs 

They had so much fun and we all enjoyed learning about the Monarch's.

Carson had a good question, 

He asked the Nature workers how long it takes for the butterfly's to get to Mexico?  

They were so attentive to the kids and their questions. 

 The answer was....

sometime in October they should arrive in Mexico.