Waking Up the Wintering Butterflies

When the first few butterflies of spring start fluttering outside, we know it’s time for a little indoor search party. We take the kids by the hand and go looking for the ones that have spent the winter sleeping under our roofs, tucked away in old cabin lofts, nestled between wooden planks in the shed, or clinging upside-down in the attic.

Nothing is completely butterfly-proof—tiny gaps in the eaves, an open woodpile, a forgotten corner of the barn, and they find their way inside to hibernate. They don't need much help, but an open door, a sun-warmed window, or, in some cases, a gentle lift of a plank full of slumbering butterflies out into the daylight, and they wake right up. A few moments in the sun, and off they go, fluttering into the warming air of spring.

For the kids, it’s pure magic. At first, the butterflies look like nothing more than dry, husky bits of leaf or bark, folded tightly against the wood.

But then, as the warmth of the sun reaches them, their wings unfold—revealing the striking, almost unreal patterns of fiery orange, deep indigo, and bright speckles. And just like that, as if by enchantment, they come alive, shaking off their winter sleep and soaring into the sky.

Some cling stubbornly to the beams, as if reluctant to leave their winter refuge. Others take flight the moment the light hits them, shaking off the long sleep and heading straight for the fresh air.

By late summer, when butterflies swirl around the last of the garden’s flowers, we sometimes wonder—are these the same ones that wintered in our attic, returning to complete the cycle? Or is it their offspring, new wings continuing an ancient rhythm?

More about butterflies, those most wonderfully whimsy bugs: