A Monarch Butterfly came to our garden

[question everything]

We did not see any last year, during the "great drought" and stories everywhere bemoaned its disappearance. We plant wildflowers so it was nice to see him this morning. He did not wait for his "close up" but was still a nice sight.

[rwork]

1. One of my happiest memories

is watching the monarch migration in the fall with my grandkids on a picnic blanket my wife had prepared....This was many years ago when we had huge numbers of the butterflies....Now we see them by the single digits.

I hope they recover...Here in Okla. we had record breaking drought the last 2 years. This summer is more back to normal..Last night we had a 3" rain.

[question everything]

5. Normal is good

Seems like we have either drought or flood or fires all across the country.

[mopinko]

2. i get different butterflies

daily it seems sometimes. i water daily, which not many in my area do, since i have a lot of stuff in containers. i have a couple of spots that tend to be either a small puddle, or at least muddy. there is always something cool in there.

[stuntcat]

3. I'm planting more milkweed for them, it's the only plant monarch caterpillars eat.

I always have one or two plants but next year I hope to have more. I ordered seeds from livemonarch.org, and they sent me two packs! They send them for free if you mail them a SASE. Now it's late so I have to wait til Spring to plant them. I'm thinking about planting some in the wild spots in our neighborhood too.

Last year I fed and raised about 30 black swallowtail caterpillars. Right now is time to start finding them on the rue and fennel. I've already got a fish tank setup for them.
My aunt taught me what to do for them, she raises hundreds of butterflies. This year she's focusing on rare species and monarchs so she's leaving the swallowtail cats outside.

Here's the site to get seeds- http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm I wish everyone would plant as many milkweeds as they can.

[question everything]

6. Will have to try this next year

I just worry that the caterpillars won't be snatched by a hungry bird. We used the wildflower seeds to attract the disappearing bees, and we have seen them, but I also wonder of any bird munching on them. We've had a long winter and many of the birds had to resort to seeds since there were no insects for a long time.

[hatrack]

4. Haven't seen one this year . . . some swallowtails & mourning cloaks but no big 'uns