Look carefully and you might see a new butterfly. It has been exciting to have eggs and monarch caterpillars on my swamp milkweed, and painted lady caterpillars on pearly everlasting plants.
In the past month I have been able to identify some new north land caterpillars and butterflies. Enjoy these pictures, but it is better to see the real thing rather than a picture! Get outside and observe!
Credit: David Moskowitz
What do you know about moths? They are not the “Ick” insect you might of thought of as a child. Because most, not all, are nocturnal we might not experience them except caught in a window or spider web. The best ones I have seen are in the bathrooms of campgrounds, and they are magnificent! This is National Moth Week, so what better time to get out and see if you can find and observe a moth. This information is from http://www.livescience.com/
Seven facts about moths:
1.There are more than 11,000 species of moths in the U.S. alone.
Moths outnumber butterflies, their nearest relative, by more than 10 to 1, said Matthew Shepherd, communications director and senior conservation associate at the Xerces Society, a nonprofit organization focused on insect conservation in Portland, Ore. There are upward of 11,000 moth species in the United States alone — that’s more than all the bird and mammal species in North America combined.
Credit: David Moskowitz
2. Moths make great mimics.
Moths are notorious for their ability to camouflage to keep from being eaten.
3. Moths are important pollinators.
4. Many adult moths don’t eat.
While some moths suck nectar, others don’t eat at all. The adult Luna moth, for instance, doesn’t even have a mouth. After it emerges from its cocoon, it lives for about a week. Its sole mission in life? To mate and lay eggs
Credit: David Moskowitz
5. A male moth can smell a female more than 7 miles away.
Though they lack noses, moths are expert sniffers. They detect odor molecules using their antennae instead of through nostrils. Male giant silkworm moths have elaborate, feather-shaped antennae with hairlike scent receptors that allow them to detect a single molecule of a female moth’s sex hormone from 7 miles (11 kilometers) away.
6. They are important food for many animals.
Because of their abundance, moths are major players at the bottom of the food chain.
7. Moths: The next superfood?
In some places in the world they eat moth caterpillars. They are high in fat and protein.
Read the entire article from livescience
“Whatever befalls the earth, befalls the people of the earth.” Chief Seattle
If Everyone Does a Little It Can Add up to A Lot!
Have you noticed how few butterflies are flittering around this summer? Researchers find that butterfly species throughout the world are disappearing because of pollution, pesticides, and habitat loss. A newly released study says many butterflies are vanishing.
The author suggests we remove some of our lawn, and plant more flowers. Yes, we should plant more flowers, but beside planting more flowers we need to reduce the use of the chemicals we put on our lawns, in our gardens and on our agricultural fields.
Reducing chemicals and planting host plants for butterflies can make a big difference. Many of us are actively working on planting milkweed for monarchs, but there are many other butterfly species. Besides milkweed I have pearly everlasting for the American painted lady, turtlehead for the checkerspot butterfly, and golden Alexander for the black swallow-tail. Violets are great for the fritillary butterflies. This is one of the best charts I have seen on plants for butterflies from Bringing Nature Home And some ideas from the University of Minnesota for plants that are favored for butterflies an moths. Please let me know what your best plants for butterflies are?
More information of pollinators: http://www.xerces.org/
Today my yard is teaming with pollinators. The bees are in abundance, house finch and hummingbirds are loving the fresh blooming plants, and I am thrilled. Butterflies have been slow to appear, but today I had a giant swallowtail, several red admirals, a painted lady, and a monarch!
The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly. Photo credit: Brian Gratwicke
Bee balm, cone flowers, and milkweed will bring butterflies, bees and butterflies.
Try this link to research and look up butterflies
Have you looked carefully at a butterfly? They are some of the most beautiful living species on our planet. The past few years I have loved learning about butterflies. Butterflies often sit so we can see them, and many binoculars make it possible to examine them closely.
Be sure to get outside this summer and look around for butterflies and other wildlife in your backyard. If you see a but aren’t sure about the species, you can consult this handy identification guide. This is from http://ecowatch.com
Here are 10 fascinating facts to consider next time you cross a butterfly’s path:
1. There are more than 17,500 recorded butterfly species around the world, 750 of which can be found in the U.S.
2. Butterflies and moths are part of the class of insects in the order Lepidoptera. Butterflies are flying insects with large scaly wings. Like all insects, they have six jointed legs and three body parts: the head, the thorax and the abdomen. The wings are attached to the thorax and they also have a pair of antennae, compound eyes and an exoskeleton.
3. The Cabbage White, is the most common butterfly in the U.S. Although it appears mostly white with black markings on the top of its wings, underneath those wings are yellowish-green. These butterflies have a wing spread of just about two inches. Males have only one spot on each wing, while females have two. As you probably know, you can find Cabbage Whites in most open spaces, including gardens, roadsides, parks and cities.
4. Monarch butterflies migrate to get away from the cold. However, they are the only insect that migrates an average of 2,500 miles to find a warmer climate. The iconic North
American Monarch has been greatly affected by extreme weather events, going through drastic dips and spikes in numbers over the past several decades. The overall pattern continues to point downward, with a 95 percent population decline over the last 20 years, but conservation efforts are helping: There were more monarch butterflies migrating in 2015 than there were in 2014.
5. Monarchs are not the only butterfly that migrate. The Painted Lady, American Lady, Red Admiral, Cloudless Sulphur, Skipper, Sachem, Question Mark, Clouded Skipper, Fiery Skipper and Mourning Cloak are among the other butterflies that also migrate, but not as far as the Monarchs.
6. The Common Buckeye Butterfly is one of the most striking butterflies, with its bold multicolored eyespots and thick upper-wing bars, all designed to frighten away any birds that might be tempted to chomp on them. If you look under its wings, you’ll find a more abstract profusion of brown, orange and beige. These insects are pretty common all over North and Central America, although you won’t find them in the Pacific Northwest or in the far north of Canada.
10. The Giant Swallowtail Butterfly, as its name implies, is one of the biggest butterflies, with a wing spread of four to seven inches. The female is once again bigger than the male. It too is found throughout North America and sometimes as far south as South America. These butterflies are called “swallow” because they have long tails on their hind wings that resemble the long, pointed tails of the birds known as swallows.
Read the entire list here
http://www.discoverlife.org/mp/20q?guide=Butterflies Identification Chart
When I see the mowing down native plants pollinators I get angry. My husband and I have just completed a driving loop from Minneapolis to Chicago and back through Iowa. We have traveled Interstate East 94, West Interstate 80 and Interstate 35 North. The entire road trip I surveyed the status of mowing and blooming plants. The shoulders of most of the interstates are not over-mowed, but they are mowing the center median which doesn’t make sense? The best plants can grow in the median if allowed to survive. Some farmers are mowing along the interstates and they do get a little extreme with their mowers. Educating, educating and educating is what we need to continue to do, and it does make a difference. Below is a sample letter I sent to my rural town road crew. I hope you can modify it and send to your local and state government.
Dear local government road crew,
Pollinators, (bees, butterflies and birds) are in trouble in the United States. They have faced serious habitat loss. Last year and the past few years their numbers seemed smaller compared to the years before. Bees and butterflies need the nectar and pollen from flowers for their survival. The Obama Administration is working to plant pollinator plants along our interstate highways to improve bird, bee and butterfly habitat. The plants along the roadways in our town are a natural habitat for birds, butterflies and bees. Now as the daisies, lupine and other wild plants bloom we have beautiful roadways for residents and food for butterflies and bees.
I am writing to ask you to not mow the entire right-a-way along our town roads until maybe late August or even better would be September. I know you need to mow for safety, and that is important. Could you please not mow every flower down until early fall? Maybe mow just a strip along the roads leaving plant food for our pollinators. The bees, butterflies, birds and humans would thank you for the needed nectar, and fabulous summer beauty.
If I can get a commitment from you to mow a little later, I will spread milkweed seeds along the town roads creating more butterfly and bee habitat.
Thank you,
Your name
Wisconsin energy co-ops to create monarch butterfly habitat
http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/05/26/i-35-bees-butterfly/
A Win-Win for water!
Simple steps to creating a rain garden:
1. Remove the sod and dig a hole. It must be at least 10 feet from your house and where you can direct a drain-spout, driveway or sidewalk to drain rain water. Most rain garden holes are about 12 inches deep with wide 3 feet slanted sides surrounding the garden. The bottom of the garden should be flat.
2. Mix in about one inch of compost to the bottom and sides of your new garden
3. Cover the garden with a layer of several inches of double or triple shredded mulch.
4. Plant deep-rooted plants. Most of the plants you love will work matching the degree of sun and shade. Also, always work to have a variety of plants that bloom at different times for the bees and butterflies.The bottom plants need to be water tolerant. Some bottom plants I have used are: liatris, swamp milkweed, turtlehead, Culver’s root, blue flag iris, sensitive fern, cardinal-flower, blue lobelia and many kinds of sedges.
5.. Water–If it is dry, you need to water the new plants for the first couple of months.
And from National Geographic, other ways to conserve water
From the Washington Post on managing water in your yard.
Questions? Leave a comment
Why are we so fascinated with hummingbirds? Is it their tiny size, incredible energy or maybe it is that we can really observe them close up in comparison to other birds?Hummingbirds love red and bright pink flowers,, and as in this video they will visit absolutely every bloom of a plant they love.
My local newspaper did two stories on hummingbirds this week and I had to share thoughts about these amazing little pollinators. 1. The female raises and feeds the babies all on her own. After June male ruby-throats in the north country, become almost non-existent. 2. Amazing, she builds her nests to expand as her babies grow. Read Val Cunningham’s article and see hummingbird nest pictures here
What can you do to attract hummingbirds to your yard and neighborhood?
1. Put up a feeder, and make your own nectar** 2. Never use chemicals on your plants, and purchase neonicotinoid free plants. 3. Plant colorful flowers like cardinal-flower, and red bee balm.
**From Nature Notes and Jim Gilbert: “Their food consists of nectar and small insects. They will come to sugar-water feeders. I like to use a mixture of one part granulated white sugar dissolved in four parts water to lure them close enough so we can hear the humming sound from their rapid wing beats. Rinse your feeder with water and scrub with a stiff brush to remove any dirt or sticky spots to help halt fermentation and mold growth. Do not add food coloring, some of which is not safe, or honey. Hummers are drawn to colors, so use a feeder made with colorful materials.” Link to the entire article on hummingbirds.
Spring is slow to crawl out of winter next to the big lake, but early June brings hope that warmer weather and summer is coming.
The trees are filled with singing warblers, many are building nests, and a female red start has worked for days pulling threads from last years swamp milkweed stalks for her nest. It’s amazing how hard they work creating their nests!
Forget-me-nots and dandelions are the flowers the bees and butterflies depend on at this time, but the hummingbirds and bees attack each wild geranium flower that starts to bloom. Also, lupine is just beginning to bloom.
Carpets of bunch berries cover the forest floor
Butterfly watching is at some of it’s best with the American Lady, Monarchs, tiger swallow-tail, spring azure, and dusty wings.
What are your outside joys for June?
How can we help our pollinating wildlife? If everyone added just a few native plants to their yard it would make a big difference to help bees, butterflies, and birds stay healthy. I love spring plants and love the bees, butterflies and birds they bring. Because we don’t use chemicals our yard is pollinator friendly.
This time of year we are share and transplant our plants to other people’s gardens. I am thrilled to be able to spread these bee and butterfly magnets to anyone who will love them.
This morning we had chickadees building nests(front and back yards), wrens building nests in two house(they couldn’t decide on one), three bunnies, and a hungry hummingbird. This is an end of May view of some of the best pollinator native plants blooming now in our Minneapolis yard:
Violets(hosts for the fritillary butterflies) Virginia waterleaf, and many other groundcover also are blooming
Health4earth 