As the sun was setting last night I spotted movement amongst the new ceranthus plants that we have growing in the side garden. One lonely Monarch was visiting each of the newly formed flower heads. Ran inside for a camera but just managed to snap one hazy image before it flew up into the apple tree and was lost to sight. Today it’s still meandering around the garden. This time I found it lingering over the fragrant butterfly bushes at the side of the house. What beautiful creatures they are.
One lonely monarch
How different from 2007. Then we had thousands of them in the garden. Despite our increasing milkweed bed which we grew just for them, the number has dwindled down to a single monarch. How very sad. The reason? A killer frost in their overwintering home in Mexico was one explanation, but another more plausible one is Monsanto.
This was the year we had thousands of them in the garden and we even had a huge cluster gather in the late evening on the oak tree before their migration began next morning. That was mid August. Apparently some leave mid August and some leave mid September.
And just as I closed this post and went to read the newspaper I see this very welcome article … there is reason for cautious optimism : )
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/windsor/monarch-butterfly-population-set-to-rise-this-year-1.2744262