Kansas Crimson

https://apnews.com/article/science-nort ... 96c19c302b

We used to have a ton of monarchs stop through our backyard every summer but it has been several years now since that stopped. Sounds like I could add some milkweed plants to the new planter out back and give them some help. Who knows.

https://www.biologicaldiversity.org/spe ... butterfly/

Such a fragile world we live in.

We planted milkweed several years ago in the yard and have had monarchs stopping in ever since. I was skeptical at first, if there wasn't milkweed here before how would they find our yard on their route through here? They found it the first year and every year since then. The part I didn't realize until recently is that the butterflies we see are coming down from Canada and laying eggs and dying. The caterpillars that then hatch in our yard, fly south and repeat this process. It takes several generations going through a complete lifecycle in a matter of weeks to complete the trip in each direction. We saw the first one show up this week. No sign of caterpillars as yet.

Nice. There were times several years ago where the monarchs were so thick in our trees that the branches were weighed down but I have seen barely any the last few years. Maybe this will motivate me to get some of the planters in my back yard filled in. It's crazy to see what all of the pesticides, logging and global warming is changing in just our lifetimes. I have no idea what the earth will have left to give five generations of humans from now. We're like freaking locusts.