Butterfly Feeder

Those who follow my blog will know that I have been keeping a beady eye on the moarch butterflies great migration from Mexico.

I am absolutely delighted to say that they have made it to my home city, STL. WELCOME MONARCHS!

Those who live more north, they are on their way! Check the map out to see how close they are to you:

https://maps.journeynorth.org/map/?year=2020&map=monarch-adult-first

With this news, I thought it was only right that we helped to feed these beautiful animals and help them on their way north to our other friends.

So here it is, todays activity is making a butterfly feeder.

This is a slightly trickier activity and better for bigger hands. However, it doesn't mean that the really little ones can't get involved and do their own little bits where they can.

What you will need:

* Jar

* String

* Sponge (If you have a natural sponge that will be best, but a regular kitchen sponge will work too. Although it is important to remember butterflies are least keen on blues and greens - you will be cutting off the scouring part, so only be concerned with the color of the sponge part)

* Nail

* Hammer

* Tweezers (not shown in picture, but they are helpful)

Another little fun fact about butterflies is that they like the colors; red, white, pink, purple, orange and yellow. So feel free to paint your jar with these colors to attract more butterflies.

The first step is to use the hammer and nail to make a hole in the lid of the jar. You are going to be pulling the half the sponge through this hole, so depending on the size of your nail, you may want to make the hole slightly bigger to make it easier.

Next, cut the sponge into a diamond (this will also assist with getting it through the hole). You will also need to cut the scourer part of the sponge off as mentioned above.

Wet the sponge with water and pull the sponge half way through the lid. Tweezers assist with this.

It should look like this:

Next, fill the jar with a sugar solution. Equal parts to water and sugar. Screw on lid.

To tie the string around the jar, cut a long - long piece of string so you can go around the jar several times to secure it.

To tie the string around the jar, I recommend doing it like you would wrap ribbon around a present. Keep tying around the jar until you just have enough string left to tie to a tree (or wherever you plan on hanging it).

Hang your butterfly feeder outside to feed all those hungry Monarchs on their great migragtion.

This of course will feed all the other breeds of butterflies too, which there are thousands!

I kept mine simple, but I would love to see your creations!

Happy Butterfly Watching!