I walked a trail lined with milkweed and shadowed by monarchs.
I have high hopes that this trend is happening all over the West. I would like to see the monarchs return to their overwintering sites in California in the hundreds of thousands. That may be a few years away, but I'm doing my part.
1 Comment
Monarchs have been rare in Nevada this year. Just as they have been rare the last decade. But this year is different. This year I have taken action to promote monarch habitat by growing milkweed. In addition I am taking notice of habitat loss. Furthermore I am counteracting habitat loss by planning Fall planting in addition to growing my own butterfly garden. Today my wife said she saw a monarch fly thru our yard yesterday. I know I can make a difference. The photo above shows a monarch egg that I found on a milkweed leaf in August 2014. From the egg I can see that monarchs are trying to survive. But thru have it hard in the wild. Rarely do more then 5-10% of eggs become butterflies. Often they get devoured as tiny caterpillars. Sad as it may be, it's true. It's not to difficult to locate the monarch butterflies. For me, I just head to the area that has the highest density of milkweed. Either East or West of Reno I can find sprawling milkweed patches and monarch. The monarchs are not abundant like I would prefer. There are often only one to five that I can identify on any given day. The photo above is the second monarch I saw on August 8th 2014 by Mayberry Park. On this walk I was poking around every milkweed plant I saw. I was looking to see the progress of the seed pods. I was also inspecting leaves for monarch eggs. Not getting any results for quite a while and nearly running out of fresh water. I was about to call it quits. I'm glad I persisted. Because seemingly out of nowhere I saw the beautiful monarch caterpillar eating away under a leaf. Careful not to disrupt its appitite I was able to capture the photo above and even a short video that I shared on twitter. See my twitter profile @growmilkweed It really made my day great seeing that a tiny monarch egg can become a healthy hungry caterpillar. I hope you enjoyed my experience. I look forward to sharing encounters like this with many people as I dpread the word about milkweed and it's popularity among the monarch population.
A road trip to Boise is an opportunity to search for milkweed and monarchs.
The drive from Reno to Boise is an excuse to look for milkweed. I may also scatters some Mexican Whorled Milkweed seeds along the way. [graduation congratulations trip to see Derek McDowell] One of the most vocal groups claiming that the toxicity of milkweed makes if it an invasive is the farmers. If you are a farmer and you have a pasture with cattle or other livestock, then milkweed is not a good plant to have in your pasture. Sadly that with the drought across the Western states grasslands are becoming barren. Milkweed should not be encouraged to grow in a pasture. I am simpathetic to the animals who may be compelled by food scarcity to graze on milkweed. Its is not a crop to be raised for grazing. I know Idaho has a lot of open range grazing for their cattle.Despite the know absence of Milkweed across the country. I am still hoping to find milkweed in the city and state parks near Boise, ID. There are no cattle grazing in the city parks as far as I know. I plan to look along the Boise River path that meanders thru town. With so many climate similarities to Reno and out Truckee River I think it's likely that there can be Mexican Whorled Milkweed Milkweed and Showy Milkweed on the banks of the river. I depart tomorrow, May 15th, 2014 (I'm up late so thats today) and will continue this post soon. I did not see any milkweed plants. I looked the entire weekend.The aqueduct near the Boise Town Square Mall didn't have any. The path along the Boise River had a lot of diversity but no milkweed. I only walked a short section in Garden City. I did see three butterflies but I don't think any were Monarchs. |
Site SearchAuthorMake milkweed your friend. Your friends will love your milkweed. My name is Brad. Learn more about me now. Blog Archives
March 2022
Blog Categories
All
email Subscriber archive |