Wonderful Marg. I had been trying hard to attract them to my yard but so far it hasn't worked. I've provided dill to encourage swallowtails to lay eggs. Unfortunately there hasn't been any signs of butterflies lingering although I did see one migrate through. Probably due to the large bird population in a nearby woodlot.

I was commenting about the incredible amount of beautiful Monarchs to a butterfly enthusiastist up in Huntsville last month - what I came to understand from this person was that the province of Ontario has decided that the milkweed that grows along the sides of country roads is too invasive and they will be treating it like purple loosestrife and spraying poison to eradicate it.

Unfortunately - that milkweed increase is why our monarch population is so healthy - it is the main habitate & food source for our beautiful monarchs.

If the Province of Ontario goes thru with this iniative, our monarchs will rapidly disappear, despite our efforts to include butterfly weed/butterfly bush into our gardens.

This makes me sad.

We bought a farm a few years ago. All the farmers must have sprayed to get rid of the milkweed. The farm we bought was mostly used for pasture and there is still milkweed growing there. I have left an area for it to grow. From the research I have done, there is a toxin found in the milkweed that butterflies consume. This toxin makes them taste bad to birds and other prey.
Butterflies also like umbelliferous flowers. Ones I have in my garden that they always visit are red valerian and cherise queen yarrow. I also have moonshine yarrow but they don't seem to like it as much. They also like anise-hyssop and liatris. They like plants with large leaves so they can land easily and rest or sip morning dew or rain drops. Their wings are like little solar panels that take up heat and heat the body. When we were doing some renovation a few years ago, we had a large sheet of pink styrofoam insulation left over. We leaned it up against the patio and planned to take it back the next day. Later I went out to the garage and when I was going back to the house I saw the sheet of insulation was covered with monarchs and they all had their wings spread out. They also seem to like my weigela bushes and even the spirea. Marg

Hi Marg.
I can acknowledge that fact. A butterfly population increased significantly this year.I enjoy watching them in my backyard garden.They love my Echinacea 'Purpurea' and 'Alba' as well. But petals of Echinacea are constantly eaten by yellow and bright green Finches. I have them a lot, more than ever before. Have you seen an increase in the Finch population also?
Hala.

Sure have Hala. I have a Makamik crabapple tree in the garden and in early summer, after it flowers, they are in there all the time. There is also a patch of Russian Knapweed that popped up in the field, I guess a birdie present, that the finches love when it gets the seeds on it. We camped here the first few years before we built the house and every time I came out of the trailer I could see them. I have noticed a different bird around here to. It's body is like that of a killdeer, we have lots of those, but leaner and brown, the neck is about twice as long. It was usually sitting in the field or on a fence post. I couldn't get close enough to get a picture but I looked through my book and except for the neck, I think maybe it was a juvenile meadowlark. Haven't seen it since midsummer. Hope it comes back next year. Marg