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Thread: Butterflies?

  1. #1
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    Aug 2008
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    timber missouri
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    Question Butterflies?

    never mind the bees,although they seem to be fewer in numbers, where are all the butterflies?

    we are seeing an absolutely frightening low number of butterflies here this year and are wondering if anyone else has noticed the same thing?

    we have the same things in bloom as always and normally we have hundreds.. this year we are lucky if we see 4 or 5 a day, if we are lucky..


    just wondering what others are seeing..
    nemophilist.




  2. #2
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    Sep 2009
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    In my neighborhood, everyone usually has dozens of hummingbirds and has to put out feed every day. This year we all have one or two.

    I haven't noticed any butterflies either. And our weather is moving from east to west, so strange.

  3. #3
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    Nov 2007
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    yup. the lady down the block and i (we watch that kind of thing, and she actually raises butterflies) noticed the same thing. we have seen almost none
    float like a butterfly...

    <img src=http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/image.php?s=fd42b01563865e774f96446ef657fe33&type=sigpic&userid=769&dateline=1223824178 border=0 alt= />
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    highly functional, paranoid, tinfoiler
    currently in charge of the aluminatorium

  4. #4
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    yes there has been a scarcity of hummingbirds here too. very disturbing.. thanks for your input,,i guess.. wishin it was only us..

  5. #5
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    Nov 2007
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    yah, hummingbirds are scarce here as well. the same lady has a humminbird garden, and we have only seen a couple so far this year
    float like a butterfly...

    <img src=http://www.thetreeofliberty.com/vb/image.php?s=fd42b01563865e774f96446ef657fe33&type=sigpic&userid=769&dateline=1223824178 border=0 alt= />
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    highly functional, paranoid, tinfoiler
    currently in charge of the aluminatorium

  6. #6
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    Nov 2007
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    HUmmers have been scarce here for the last several years BUT this year they are back in abundance. We have 5 feeders up all the time and they get drained in 24 hours!! Regular butterflies on the mimosa, those Blue Lace/Ladies? What I am please is scarce are those dern grasshoppers - hardly any this year, maybe a dozen total so far. Last year they ate everything.

  7. #7
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    Nov 2007
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    I definitely noticed much smaller numbers of the Yellow Swallowtails this spring (they usually absolutely swarm the lilac bush). Haven't seen nearly as many cabbage whites (NOT complaining) or the sulfur or alfalfa butterflies.

    Plenty of honeybees- I was just picking the first baby cucumbers, and the vines were swarming with bees.

    And while we don't have hummingbird feeders out this year, I saw over a dozen of the little creatures at a feeder the neighbors have out. Doesn't seem to be much of a shortage of them here.

    I'll be watching for the second brood of Monarchs...

    But.. while this is definitely something to watch, you have to remember that MANY wild populations go through "boom and bust" cycles- often around a 7 year cycle. When the Monarch population booms, we see thousands of them, everywhere. The last boom year (I don't remember when it was... not sure if I could find it in my journals now) was amazing... I was cutting third crop hay in late September, in a back field by the woods around sunset.

    There were literally tens of thousands of Monarchs in that field... clinging to stems of tall grass. As I mowed, they flew up in huge glowing clouds (the setting sun illuminated them so it looked like a sea of flames) and settled again farther towards the interior of the field. By the time I got to that last single swatch to cut, every butterfly in the 8 acres was now in that one, 8' wide stretch of grass. I geared way down and mowed into it slowly, letting the butterflies lift off and out of danger... when I looked back, it looked like a fire tornado lifting into the sky... they flew off to the woods and landed on a tree on the edge.

    The next year, I think we saw three Monarchs, total. Boom and bust- natural cycles.

    Summerthyme

  8. #8
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    We see a lot of yellow swallowtails and even more of a particular black butterfly with dark blue patterns on the top of its wings - they both to love the compost heap.

    Honeybees we're seeing in large quantities for the first time in years!

    Hummingbirds are the same 2 or 3 we usually get at the feeder.

  9. #9
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    Yes, swallowtails and others (sounds like a Mourning Cloak, but may be one of the "Purples"- Red Spotted Purple, most likely) LOVE manure and compost. Rather strange to seem the visiting puddles in the barnyard like they're flowers!!

    Dilligaf... one thing that occurs to me... your excessive rain probably has something to do with the butterfly drought- they are fairly delicate creatures (amazingly strong for their size, though) and they don't really do well without plenty of warm, sunny days for feeding, flying and mating.

    The lifespan of some is pretty darned short, too... if they don't manage to mate and reproduce fairly quickly, they're simply out of luck. And since many of the butterfly species only produce a single brood per year, if the weather shuts them out, the population may be affected for several years to come...

    Summerthyme

  10. #10
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    One thing that we have got a TON of, which I've never even seen before, is black soldier flies. They're all over in the garden, the compost heap (where they lay their eggs and the chickens love to hunt for the larvae), and in the barn - where they've actually displaced the houseflies! We were upset with the housefly population out there and now...there's soldier flies but no houseflies to speak of. I'm really pleased about that!

    We're considering setting up a larva bucket to feed the birds...but hubby says they seem to get all they want in the compost heap - and they're turning the compost for us as they're looking for them lol

    Sorry for the drift...

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