Mystery of the Missing Butterflies

  Several times in the past few weeks, I have made mention of the weeds/wildflowers that I allow to pretty much take over the gardens.  Fall sees these plants put on their finest attire which gives the gardens a lovely splash of color.  Fall, also, sees the migration of butterflies that come to visit these very flowers....usually.

  As I was out with the old dog this afternoon, I made a very sad observation.  Although, the wildflowers are in full bloom, nary a monarch was sipping nectar.  The wild ageratum are usually the desired bloom for the orange butterflies.  These and the milkweeds seem to attract more monarchs than any other blooms in the gardens.  Today, however, I found only a few small fritillary butterflies and nothing else.  

  Are the monarchs simply running late this year or did they take an alternate route through the area?  I have no idea other than to say that none of my neighbors have seen the mass migration of previous years.  This, indeed, makes me sad. 

Where are the butterflies?

Normally by this time, the Bayou is aflutter with all sorts of butterflies especially the Monarchs.  The wild Ageratums are usually the site of a mass of orange.  I always love when the Monarchs are here.  Their colors of orange and black are so fitting for October and Halloween!  This year, however, the Monarchs are missing.  Sure, I have a few but nothing like it has been in the past.  Last year and the previous year, thousands of butterflies made a stop at the Bayou to sip from the flowers.  The Zinnias, Ageratums and daisies were covered in years past.  Not now!  With the exception of some Long-tailed Skippers and an occasional Fritillary there are no "Flying Flowers".  This makes me sad.

Speaking of the wild Ageratums, they are doing extremely well since I corralled them in the flower garden.  They, with the Morning Glories, seem to enjoy the extra attention they get by being considered flowers and not weeds.  I am still trying to get a few of the "Ditch Daisies" (better known as Blackeyed Susans) to take in the garden.  This garden has been designated as the "Wildflower Garden".  I have a tendency to name each area of the yard as it makes it far easier to explain to folks just where something is planted.  "Go look in the Herb Garden!", "The Ferns are growing in the Moss Garden." or "The Rubies are in the Lily Garden!" can be heard whenever there is a question of what is blooming.  The Wildflower Garden is definitely in dire need of a few Ditch Daisies!  (This is a name that folks plastered on the Blackeyed Susans since the roadsides seem to have a plethora of the yellow-headed plants each fall.)

Still, I wonder..where are the butterflies?  Did they just pass by the Bayou without making their usual feeding stop?  Are they running a bit late this year?  Or did I blink and miss them?  Hopefully, next year they will be back as they do add a good bit of beauty to the Bayou.

The Good, the Bad and the Ugly!

I suppose I should rephrase the title to "The Good and Beautiful and the Bad and Ugly! The good and beautiful part refers to the many, many Monarch Butterflies that are migrating through the yard this year. I have never seen so many here. The yard is literally full of them. I know I lightly touched upon this in an earlier post, but..my goodness!..there are butterflies everywhere! At first, they seemed to prefer only the wild ageratums as a dining hall. And I do believe this would be the cafe of choice if I just had more ageratums! But now the marigolds, goldenrod, petunias and cosmos are covered. My yard has been turned into an orange and black Monarch World! Today as I went to the garden, there were butterflies on just about every flower but the garden was in desperate need of a good watering. As I watered I had to be so careful as to not spray them for fear of damaging their wings. I slipped the hose down low beneath the ageratums, up came a virtual cloud of orange and black fluttering wings. The swirling mass of Monarch engulfed me..what a thrill! I had butterflies all around me! It is strange the feeling that can overcome you when you are in the midst of something that is pure happenstance. This was one of those times. Nature performs magic that no magician could ever pull from his hat. The wonder of it all, the awe from witnessing an occurrence such as this is amazing. I truly wish that instead of a water hose, I had been holding my camera. Not that I could have ever captured the effect of a hundred or so fluttering butterflies, but it would have been fun to try!

Now for the bad and the ugly. Since Katrina, we have been inundated with Black Widow Spiders. I have even endured the bite from one of these nasties and I can honestly tell you that it is not fun. I thought we were about to eradicate them by simply smashing the adults and egg sacs. Well, today I discovered that not only do we have the Black Widow, we also have her evil sister, the Brown Widow. Oh, great! Just what I needed. There is some argument as to the potency of the Brown Widow's bite. Some say that it is not as potent as the Black Widow while others claim it is just as bad if not worse. All I know is that I do not like either. They have to go and I will fight them if I find them. This one was living under an unused flower pot. Looking for a nice pot to use as a home for some more basil plants, I turned the pot over and UHOH! The battle began! War was waged and after tirelessly fighting, I emerged as the victor! Spider and egg sacs were demolished! I know that for the next few days I will be extremely leery of where I put my hands simply because I saw this one. Then after the newness wears off, I will go right back to my careless ways. I will say that one time being bit is quite enough. I really have no inclination to try that again!