I grew up in Sebastopol, CA, near Santa Rosa. It was covered with apple orchards, mostly Gravenstein. The main highway through town is named Gravenstein Hwy. Years ago, nearly every jar of apple sauce (Apple Time), bottle of apple juice, even the dried apple bits in Apple Jacks cereal came from Sebastopol. 20 years ago the Washington apple growers got together and bought the Vacu-Dry processing plants in Sebastopol and shut them down, effectively shutting down the apple orchards. Every spring they still have an Apple Blossom Parade for nostalgias sake, even though the apple orchards are untended and out of production for the most part.

Forgot to add, if they are sensible, they are out in their gardens instead of wandering the Web. :)

Aprice---Yes since the youguns have arrived the last week has been very active here. Back in June I had 3 males battling it out for this yard and claiming all the females the could and now [just guessing] between 6-10 toward evening , hard to count. During the day 4-6 at most times. I have 3 window feeders and 3 more around the yard scattered out and all are used. I have the 3oz walmart special I have to fill twice a day now. I didnt have this kind of activity last year till into august. This year I have also planted some flowers to attract them that I didnt have last year. I have guaranitica black and blues, coccinia lady in red, greggi magenta and primrose, salvia bonfire and cuphea david verity. The black and blues are great, 7 or 8 of those plants, love em. I dont know why yours would have left , did you have a lot last year , all year? Keep your nectar fresh?

I did see cabbage whites today, and I have two toddlers of BST on my fennel. Yeah! So, they've been around, I just haven't seen them. My passion flower is just peeking out of the soil, so soon I'll have the frits. I had one BST on my Rue finally, but it disappeared, so I assume the birds got it. No GSTs yet. Numbers really are down right now. Maybe they're just getting ready for a big swarm, right? Keep me posted on your sightings. Susan