Butterflies

[riverwhy]

Just curious what everyone has observed this year. I saw 4 Monarchs when running the Milton Hershey farm road and one at my house on Friday. Same area yesterday and I didn’t see any. Walked the Ephrata Middle School track and saw one today . Seems like early fall is prime time. Overall, this summer has seemed better than the last few. Most seen at Middle Creek but also a ton of caterpillars at my Mom’s home at keystone
Villa I’m downtown Ephrata. They pluck them off the milkweed and protect them before releasing.

 

[troutbert]

I've been seeing lots of butterflies on wildflowers recently. Also, lots of bees.

 

[lars]

i found this pupae hanging from a plant stem. it was bright green when i put it in the ball jar and it turned to the black color for a week or so before it hatched.

 

[dryflyguy]

I have several butterfly bushes in the yard.
And they're usually teeming with butterflies over the summer.
Only saw a few this year for some reason

 

[Paul6.5]

We seem to have a bumper crop of butterflies this year, I have seen quite a few Monarch's and Swallowtails over the last few weeks.

 

[mt_flyfisher]

Just curious what everyone has observed this year. I saw 4 Monarchs when running the Milton Hershey farm road and one at my house on Friday. Same area yesterday and I didn’t see any. Walked the Ephrata Middle School track and saw one today . Seems like early fall is prime time. Overall, this summer has seemed better than the last few. Most seen at Middle Creek but also a ton of caterpillars at my Mom’s home at keystone
Villa I’m downtown Ephrata. They pluck them off the milkweed and protect them before releasing.

I live in New Holland, and haven’t seen any butterflies, but we’ve had a ton of lantern flies on the 2 maple trees in our front yard the past week or so. There weren’t any to speak of all summer, and now we have lots of them show up all at once. Maybe they were in the corn fields earlier which are now in the process of being harvested.

Our town just recently built a butterfly park on the edge of town. Driving by, it looks really nice. Maybe it will attract some butterflies in the future buts it’s probably too new for this season. The butterfly park adjoins Groff’s park which was built a number of years back which is filled with a variety of trees that are native to Pennsylvania.

 

[riverwhy]

I have really not seen the swallowtails this year. The zinnia's we planted at my mom's house pretty much failed and I did not get in to some of the areas I have seen an abundance in the past like the forest roads in Weiser Forest or the road in to Stony Creek.

 

[McSneek]

I saw a lot of Monarchs this summer. More than I recall in years. As of a few weeks ago they seemed to decline in number. Assume they have already started their migration.

 

[Jay_H]

In south central I’ve seen both monarchs and swallowtails. I still have a lot of bees on my lavender plants.

 

[TroutHunter814]

We have seen some on all of our native plantings, but not what I’d consider lots.
Monarchs, Viceroys, black swallows, and a few yellows, and several butterfly moths.
But they have mostly all gone now.

If you guys have not tried Tithonia ( Mexican sunflowers) … you should plant some.
More butterflies and bees on them than any other plant in our garden!! Every year.

 

[tomgamber]

Have also seen many Monarchs this summer. Makes my wife smile.

 

[Mike]

I saw a lot of Monarchs this summer. More than I recall in years. As of a few weeks ago they seemed to decline in number. Assume they have already started their migration.

Correct, monarchs have been migrating throughout Sept and now into October. They are counted each year along with the hawks and eagles at the hawk migration watch sites along the Kittatinny Ridge/Blue Mountain, providing a long-term record. I’ve never looked to see if they are counted elsewhere in Pa, such as the hawk and eagle watch sites on Tussy Mtn and Bald Eagle Mtn.

 

[rrt]

There's a woman in town who helps the Monarchs. I'm not sure how she does it, but I think she gets caterpillars, feeds them, watches them form their cocoons in a cage, and when they emerge from the cocoons, she releases them to migrate to their southern wintering spots. Seems like a helpful project to me.

 

[CRB]

30 years ago on a crisp fall October evening on Presque Isle Bay the water was littered with them as the temperature fell. Seamed like thousands succumbed to the lake breeze out of the cotton wood trees. Littered the bay like the fall colored leaves that also were falling.
I whish I was that young again.

 

[cbieh589]

We have been seeing a steady amount of them passing through. My wife plants lots of pollinator attracting flowers and plants and this year we had lots of bees and smaller butterflies. It was great to see. I also only saw a few lantern flies so hopefully we've passed the time of the lantern fly and we are back to butterflies.

 

[bigjohn358]

I saw more monarchs this year than I can ever remember! I had a ton of them on my flowers in front of the house. They were definitely earlier this year than in the past.