monarch butterflies

[beav]

Last year I saw thousands of them. So far I've seen three this year. What have you seen?

[btulloh]

I don't have any milkweed here right now, so no Monarchs.  I need to plant some milkweed.

[Southside]

I have some I am letting go to seed, I can send you some when it's ready. 

[Walnut Beast]

I've got milkweeds everywhere and not many butterflies 🦋 

[JJ]

I just read this, and look out my back door and there one is..



 


 

[Autocar]

IVE GOT MILK WEED AROUND MY MAIL BOX AND IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS i HAVE SEEN SIX MONARCH WORMS EATING.

[thecfarm]

I doubt I have ever seen more than 20 in one day, and I might be high on the count too. We plant a lot of flowers in the veggie garden, I have seen a few in there.

[Stephen1]

IVE GOT MILK WEED AROUND MY MAIL BOX AND IN THE LAST TWO WEEKS i HAVE SEEN SIX MONARCH WORMS EATING.

I have 3 Monarchs worms eating in my milkweed garden today

[Skip]

I saw the first one yesterday in the backyard .  ;D

[Walnut Beast]

They need all the help they can get!!!! Glad I'm contributing helping them with milk weeds everywhere!! Started seeing quite a few but a little tough to get a close picture 

[Walnut Beast]

They are taking care of the good thistle!

 

[barbender]

Yeah I saw quite a few in the field next door on the thistle, it was good to see them.

[ESFted]

Only a few visited my row of swamp milkweed this summer.  I add new plants every year hoping to encourage monarch visits, but am afraid the plants don't like my heavy clay soil. One of my favorite gardening podcasts just did a feature on monarchs and it's a good 2 minute listen if you can spare the time, actually 4 minutes 'cause it's a two part-er.

[Southside]

Guess it's the cattleman in me that thinks it's not proper English to put the words "good" and "thistle" together in a sentence.  ;D

[thecfarm]

Southside  :D

[Walnut Beast]

I've got a bunch of the good tall thistle ( non invasive) and here is the best way to identify to leave bee 🐝
  https://wisconsinpollinators.com/Plants/P_Details.aspx?plantid=313
 

  🦋

[Chuck White]

In our area we have quite a bit of Canada Thistle.

[petefrom bearswamp]

Not much milkweed on my property.
As a point of interest, about 35 yrs ago the house I lived in had a large Red oak at the end of the driveway.
One early autumn I was going down my hill and thought that the leaves had not fallen yet but the tree was covered with thousands of Monarchs.
I was in too much of a hurry to take a pic, darn it.
I assume it was a gathering to get ready to travel to  their wintering place. Mexico I believe?

[SwampDonkey]

Never been a milkweed within miles of here. If I go across the river valley and down river 10-15 miles those old pasture fields are full of it. I do get Canada thistle popping up once in awhile, but they get the eradication treatment. I saw 2 monarchs last month, and a couple tiger swallow tails. From photos I seen posted here, some of them 'monarchs' are actually swallowtails. ;D

I've had monarch on carrots before , this was years ago, and they weren't swallow tail. Monarch have those rear and front antenna, swallowtail don't. I'm sure monarch feed on lots of stuff. ;) Kinda like the people on call in radio shows they call experts who always say robins only eat worms and bugs, when they are here eating round wood berries, HB cranberries and grapes as well. :D Yes, critters have their preferences, a preference is not exclusivity. ;)

[Southside]

Ever notice how many butterflies you find on piles of poop? That side gets left out of the romance of butterflies.  :D

[SwampDonkey]

That reminds me, the young hardwood I'm thinning right now has pin cherry and beech scattered in it, mostly cutting out as birch. But of note, been stepping in bear poo when I don't see it first, sure can smell it. :D :D And yeah, a couple weeks ago I saw a 200 lb bear near the area. He's been looking for beech nuts. The cherry fruit are long gone. Leaves are turning already on the ridges. Lots of yellow birch leaves on the ground already. Another berry I forgot about is hobble bush, probably eating those to. They are another viburnum, like high bush cranberry and wild raisin. Lots of small canopy openings with hobble bush.

[KEC]

I let some milkweed grow around my yard, though I seldom see butterflies using it. I let a big Bull Thistle grow by the front porch. Hummingbirds and bees worked the flowers. American Goldfinches first ate the aphids off the stems, then fed on the seeds and used some of the fluff from the seed heads for their nesting material. I wasn't so fond of Bull Thistle as a kid on a dairy farm as the pasture had a lot of it, but we also had lots of goldfinches.