monarch butterflies

[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. 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.