Plant milkweed. If you care about the plight of the beloved monarch butterfly, try this simple act of kindness. Plant milkweed.
Plant milkweed. If you care about the plight of the beloved monarch butterfly, try this simple act of kindness. Plant milkweed.
Being dramatic is warranted in the case of monarch butterflies whose numbers have plummeted over the last few years.
Beyond the monarchs and the milkweed a broad discussion has been unfolding on the Vineyard in recent months and weeks about the use of herbicides.
The Gazette presents a local film clip on monarch butterflies as ecologists around the country raise a cry over the fate of the monarchs, whose numbers have fallen off perilously in the last few years.
Over the next few months Vineyarders can be on the lookout for some familiar seasonal residents: the monarch butterflies. The annual odyssey of the monarch butterfly has long delighted scientists and backyard naturalists. In early spring these delicate, diminutive creatures leave their overwintering site in south-central Mexico and make their way north.
Summer seems in the distant past as the New Year approaches, yet some of us are still thinking about the wildlife that frequents the Vineyard in the warm summer months. For the past two summers I wandered through the fields and forests of the Vineyard, planting the seeds for a study I would later conduct. The first phase of the study was launched during the summer of 2011 at Felix Neck Wildlife Sanctuary in Edgartown. The study set out to identify and assess the host plant selection process of Lepidoptera (butterflies and moths) on Martha’s Vineyard.
