Delilah Day (D-Day 2025)
We have been caring for caterpillars and releasing painted lady butterflies, for many years at Bearsprings, and we have come across some very interesting behaviour from the butterflies that we have cared for. Delilah is unique in her own right and we don’t think that we will ever find another butterfly quite like her. However, in honour of our determined little Delilah’s birthday celebrations today, we have decided to discuss some of the other interesting behaviour that we have seen from out butterflies at Bearsprings.
This butterfly doesn't have a name yet (perhaps you might like to give it one?). It has always enjoyed laying down on top of the nectar covered sponge. The black marks are the scales rubbing off, from its wings. We had to keep flipping the sponge this day because it just wouldn't stop and we wanted to distract it from looking at its scales all over the sponge. It doesn't seem to be bothered by the fact that all of those scales are coming off and it was actually able to fly away (though it struggled for a while).
This is Bearsprings’ dearly loved house butterfly, determined Delilah!
An introduction to Delilah
Today is Delilah’s birthday! Delilah is a painted lady butterfly and despite having damaged wings after emerging from her cocoon, which left her unable to fly, she has always remained determined and able to adapt to her surroundings. Delilah does things her own way and behaves much more like a house pet than a wild butterfly.
Bearsprings invites you to take a look at her adventures on our blog post labelled ‘Delilah’s Diary’.
You can also learn more about butterflies on our ‘pollinators fact file for children’ and ‘facts about painted ladies for children’ (both located within our pollinators campaign area).
This painted lady (not Delilah) might look familliar from last year. She also behaved very strangely at times as she would often sit in the middle of the sponge and not drink any nectar, but she had to make certain that she was in the middle of the sponge regardless. Her siblings drank plenty and quite often but she rarely did. This is one of the only times we caught her drinking (and towards the edge of the sponge).
Why do you think she did that? Butterflies taste with their feet but it was during a heatwave so we were very surprised she didn't seem to want to drink as much as the others. Again, she was safely released and had no difficulty flying.
Some children at Bearsprings have even ordered their own butterfly kits and taken care of many butterflies this summer. Would you ever consider taking care of some of your own pollinators?
If you don’t have the time to care for them or caterpillars ‘creep’ you out, you can help pollinators in other ways too. You can plant wildflowers in your garden or any pots if you have limited outdoor space. All of this will help to make ‘B-lines’. As we’ve mentioned on our pollinators fact file, these ‘B-lines’ are an insect pathway that helps the pollinators to do their job.
We have also been exploring outdoors and reading many pollinator based books during outdoor story time. Bellow is a sneak peak at our pick for August’s book at the Bearsprings Early Years Book Club.
Come, join us over at the Bearsprings Early Years Book Club for many fun reads, activities and questions!
Bobbin hopes to see you over there and can't wait to share many book picks with you, maybe some pollinator based ones?