It is hard to believe that it has already been 15 years since I took this image of Sophia in the back part of our farm. We were spreading milkweed seeds with the hope that we would see more milkweed plants - and more monarchs - in future years.
By doing this each year that we have lived at our farm, we have many more milkweed plants now than we did in 1995 when we moved here. We are seeing a positive impact of our actions.
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The original photograph is of a migrating monarch on one of many swamp milkweed plants that are blooming in the west pasture near the seasonal pond. By using the Waterlogue app, I can change the image into a watercolor image.
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The monarch migration continues. Every day when I look outside at the backyard, there are at least a dozen monarchs I can count. Some may be making their way through our yard and stopping for nourishment along the way. Others may be staying for a while, not sure when their next opportunity to "fuel up" is possible.
I wish that more people would plant a monarch waystation with a diversity of plants for them to feed upon as they make their long journey south to Mexico.
The monarchs are migrating now and are spending a lot of time on the blazing stars - one of the many native plants we have at the farm. This is the first year that I have noticed so many monarchs in the fall. What also is interesting is that after they eat during the afternoon and early evening, the monarchs are roosting in the trees near the gardens. I have never seen this before. What a joy!!
I was happy to see the swamp milkweed blooming this year. I had put some dormant plants out in the west pasture last year in the spots where there were depressions in the soil left by the horses' hooves. Surprisingly, the plants came up this year and are doing well. The monarchs (and the bees!) are loving the milkweed.
It was also nice to see that there are monarch caterpillars on the common milkweed. Pretty soon, there will be a chrysalis and a new butterfly!
