Right now we're having rather bad weather, cold, wet, blowing, with intermittent sunny periods, however until now our weather has been hot and sunny for extended periods.
We had an exceptionally long, hot summer, which meant there were still plenty of butterflies about in March and April.
But now it's June and Winter is beginning, yet we still have unexpected numbers of butterflies - Monarchs and others.
Our New Zealand Monarch butterflies do not migrate to anywhere in particular, during our Winters. Rather they form into small and large clusters and hang about in tall trees, in the areas they were raised into.
In such warm conditions, as we have had this summer, the female butterflies have continued to lay eggs for much longer than usual and the caterpillars are still emerging.
Take a look at these caterpillars I saw yesterday, on swan plants (milkweed) in the garden around a business premises in the Bay of Islands. I also saw two Monarch butterflies flying about in the same area.
Actually, it's quite delightful to still be seeing caterpillars so fit and healthy in June.