It is bizarre and amazing to have photographed a butterfly in the wilds of Massachusetts at this time of year! *But* - and it’s a small but - this is not a monarch butterfly. I think this is actually an American lady, Vanessa virginiensis, or at least something in the genus Vanessa.

Perhaps someone was raising them and this one was late to pupate, but the caretaker decided to let it go and hope for the best, even if the best means becoming some other wild creature’s dinner.