Nice to know you have a number of them! One of my treasured memories was one afternoon at high school band practice, looking up and seeing a large flock(?) of migrating monarch passing by overhead for something like 5 minutes.

DH just came by to say he counted another 8 that have arrived in the past 30 minutes...

Babs - yes, that's a quite impressive sight isn't it?! I remember seeing a river of monarchs passing overhead at our previous house, not too far from here, back in the mid 1980s. Sadly, it's been many years since there's been anything near that number. *sigh*

I've had an over abundance since the buddilaes first bloomed this year..it's been wonderful. You practically get hit in the face by them each time you walk out the back door. I have two along the back deck and still blooming strong...keeping them very busy!

The one out front is about bloomed out...bringing them all out back now :)

You two are so lucky to have seen them in great numbers!

I have had sightings of singles since the beginning of the month. It has been two or three years since I have had several at a time.

GardenHo - I'd love to see pictures of your butterfly bushes, with or without the monarchs....

perenn.all - we've had the same experience re only singles up to today. DH speculates that the unusually mild/hot temperatures we've had recently may have delayed the start of their migration and the sudden change to colder temperatures on the weekend got them moving! I like this picture of our heptacodium he took a short time ago.... Our fingers are tightly crossed for a decent show as the migration progresses!

Oh woody, now that is what butterfly dreams are made of!

Great pic woody! Try to snap a few more as they pass through so we can enjoy. :0)

I saw a few monarchs here and there this summer and was quite pleased to see a monarch caterpillar on my milkweed. What became of him (her?) I don't know, but it was encouraging.

OMG! I hope we get that many too!!

Beautiful pic perennial.all

Wow Arlene that would be a site to see!

Woody here are previous pics I posted earlier in the season: http://forums2.gardenweb.com/discussions/3287429/buddleia-lovers?n=3

Back Bushes...both 'purple buzz', much smaller than my front yard bush. Still looking for pic of front one.

Front one...pic not the best. Later in the season so not many blooms, but much larger than the buzz' series. The name slips my mind at the moment. I saw many pairs' of butterflies on this one......

GardenHo - Your butterfly bushes are looking great! I planted a couple of the Buzz ones earlier this year but they're not doing too well here. We really miss the big butterfly bush we lost after the nasty winter of 2013-2014 :-(

Alene - I've been thinking of that article in the link you posted for that picture. The Monarchs that 'refuel' at our heptacodium are part of the gathering of them that happens along the lake while they wait for favourable winds to help them proceed south. We assumed that they headed out over the lake, but that article says they follow the lakeshore, It was talking about Lake Erie, but the gist of it would imply that they do the same wrt Lake Ontario too. Maybe we'll check out what is happening along the Hamilton Beach Trail in the next few days. I know from a project I did for a course I took last fall that the Trail, and another area near Hamilton harbour, included plantings that should be attractive to hungry monarchs!

I haven't seen any monarchs for at least a week. Think they have already migrated through this area.

Now hummingbirds are moving through.

Interesting - the stream of them I saw back in the mid-70's was in the Cleveland suburbs, so it seems to be a good spot to see them en masse. I'll be keeping an eye out while I am visiting there this week. Impressive photo of your DH's of the multiple monarchs on the Heptacodium, Woody.

You are so lucky. No butterflies of any kind in my garden. In fact I think I've only seen couple of cabbage whites all year.

Back in the 1980s I saw a tree completely covered with monarchs while at a fall camp in northern Iowa. Very impressive.

Good grief, Flora, that is truly demoralising This year, I saw the first swallowtail of my life - a truly rare and special sight - but the year kicked off with brimstones (and looks to end with them too) and seemed promising...but last year, there were clouds of small heaths, small torties and, by late July, hundreds of peacocks, but this year, the speckled woods, ringlets and gatekeepers, as well as various skippers, have been OK but we have seen hardly any red admirals and few commas (usually they are a common sight on the campion and hemp agrimony).

I finally found a source for milk parsley after numerous abortive efforts to find seed and grow my own swallowtail caterpiller plants...so I sincerely hope we can create a bit more of a corridor between Surlingham (where there are breeding colonies), across the Yare to Strumpshaw - a butterfly conservation area noed for swallowtails. I have to say, the sight of almost 5 inches of fast-flying beauty was one of the sights of my life.

Monarchs - a lovely butterfly but never seen on our shores unless blown off course - which apparently happens every decade or so...but surely not the only butterfly in the US. What others are emblematic? I know so little about US wildlife and what I do know seems to be larger mammals instead of the small, but significant insects and birds.

Skipper, swallowtail, sulphur, painted lady, white cabbage, mourning cloak, angel wing, red admiral, fritillary

Campanula - monarchs are not the only butterflies but they are certainly widespread and very showy, so they are what most people think of when you say 'butterfly'! Check out DH's Butterfly album on Flickr to see images of butterflies from our garden and local areas. Some of the ones listed by mnwsgal are there - but you can see that monarchs dominate - very photogenic :-)

Oh, lovely Woody...and I certainly recognise a few. What you call Mourning Cloaks, we call Camberwell Beauty, although it has been many years since one was last seen on our shores. And yep, you even have a swallowtail!

One of my ex'es is busy with butterfly conservation so I have been following advice and growing far more plants such as echium vulgare (still in bloom along the road verges now) and, entirely thanks to you, Woody, I have ordered a heptocodium - more or less unknown this side of the pond, the first apparently planted as late as the 1980s (and defying expectations since it is still thriving in dry chalky soil and not the moist peat we had been told it must have.

Buddleja, so beloved in the US, is something of a weed in the UK and often regarded as similar to willowherbs - too big, too weedy, too widespread and just. too. much...although I think the Buzz dwarf series has revitalised the take-up in the UK while I am happy to sing the praise for that old favourite 'Lochinch'..

Woody gorgeous butterfly photos and Arlene, what a great photo of the Monarchs. We don't get the Monarchs here and in the last few years we hardly see any butterflies other than the Cabbage White. I only saw one Swallowtail all summer long :(.

These are a few that have visited my garden in the last few years, a little tattered but still a delight to see.

Loquin's Admiral

And this moth

Blind-Eyed Spinx on Batik Iris

Annette

Yes moths are beautiful too. Here is a Polyphemus moth.

Just beautiful, keep them coming.

Annette

I've passed on the photo compliments to DH - his photos are amazing! Check out some of his other albums, especially the birds. He's also very 'into' odes (dragonflies)

Campanula - I think you'll enjoy the heptacodium. Did you get a shrub or tree form? Mine was bought as a shrub and I kept the strongest stem and cut the rest off to make it a tree form. I think they look much more impressive as trees than shrubs. I'm not sure exactly what the pH of our soil is but it is most likely neutral-to-alkaline (based on what grows well here, and what the general geology of the area is) Aside from a bit of supplemental water in its first year or so, it survives on natural rainfall. It is smack up against a big old white cedar tree so there is lots of root competition. And our soil is pretty heavy clay. The brutal winter of 2013-2014 didn't cause even a bit of die-back on it. So this is one tough tree in my experience! I'm pretty sure it will do fine for you. It grows pretty fast and flowers well right away. Our season is too short here to get the pink display from the calyxes after the flowers drop off, but you would likely get that stage there I think.

Annette - that pine white is a beautiful thing!

So is that first moth you posted peren.all. The gray wood background is so perfect for it. Do you have that picture framed? It certainly would be well worth doing that for it!

Wow woody, maybe with a little cropping I should frame it if you consider it worthy lol! High praise considering your DH's fabulous photos.

Moths usually hang around buildings as opposed to the garden I find. In this case an out building. I am always delighted to see these creatures and just take a shot when they give the opportunity since the chance might not come again. The only time I ever saw a Luna moth in the garden I did not have a camera.

GardenHo your Buddleja are so impressive!

Annette I hope your lack of butterflies is just a temporary downturn. It is great seeing the west coast species. That was a very cooperative Sphinx.

woody I will be checking out the dragonflies. Thank you both for access to the photo albums.

When they are hungry, they share.

tj

Stunning photographs, thanks all.

Large dragonfly posing....

I forgot about this guy, Dragonfly sitting on Porcelain Vine, kind of hard to see sitting amongst the greenery.

Beautiful Annette. Shall we work in tandem? Closeup.

Great photo's Peren.all, I'm afraid my photography leaves a lot to be desired. I have a better camera now but still lack the skill to use it properly. I guess I'm always going to be a point and shoot gal. I don't show my photos to one of our granddaughters, she's a professional photographer LOL.

Annette

DH is enjoying these pictures too... GardenHo - that's an interesting perspective on a twelve-spotted skimmer. And peren.all - that's a lance-tipped darner. I always find the blue Odes very eye-catching!

Loving this thread! Great photos, all. Woody, I was somewhat surprised to find out that they follow the shoreline as well. Makes for a longer trip, but probably a safer one. Maybe a few brave souls decide to venture out right across the lake.

Here are my best monarch and dragonfly pics from this summer. Not sure of the dragonfly species.

Me too Arlene! I think that is one of the Bluets. So attractive.

Thank you for the name woody. The Darners and Meadowhawks? are very, very plentiful here.

A couple of hours ago I got this shot of Meadowhawks? ensuring us of potential for next years population.

arlene - on the assumption based on that article, that the monarchs around here might aim for the Niagara area as a crossing point that minimizes their time over open water, DH yesterday checked out the plantings around the pondat Windemere Basin and also looked along the western end (i.e. the end closest to Niagara) of the Hamilton Beach Trail. He said there weren't many monarchs along the Trail, but there was 100 or so in the pond area. He hasn't downloaded the pictures from his camera yet.... There was not the dense congregation like those in the picture you posted. So the question of where the local accumulation of butterflies cross is still a mystery to be solved :-) The heptacodium here still has a nice collection fluttering about but the numbers haven't increased by as much as we hoped. We conclude that this is a better year for them than last year but the numbers are still quite low.

Re your Ode picture above, DH says it's a damselfly not a dragonfly but he isn't sure which one exactly. He says he took a picture recently of one just like that, but hasn't got around to IDing exactly what it is....

peren.all - we were posting at the same time.... I will ask DH his opinion on that one when he's back from dog-walkies :-)

peren.all - DH says "Yes, a Meadowhawk; probably an Autumn Meadowhawk. There are several meadowhawks that look quite similar; a good photo of the face is best to help get an ID of the specific one."

The X-rated :-) pose is interesting! They always look somewhat bizarre - and you can't help but wonder if their backs hurt! :-) DH's shot of damselflies in a similar pose.

They have been trickling through my garden this past week here in NE Pa. One day there were over a dozen floating through the verbena bonariensis, but each day there were either a few or a few more. Strange that there were next to none all summer...

Today saw a lone monarch in my garden. Haven't seen any other than white cabbage butterflies for some time. Must be a straggler or emerged late. It was beautiful though looked small.

Yes woody my thoughts exactly, Dragonfly Kama Sutra number...lol!

I did laugh when I saw this pic of a Clouded Sulphur. Just something about it, bad hair day, startled?

No photo, but I just saw a lone monarch drifting by the 7th floor of my mom's building, about a mile south of Lake Erie in the middle of Cleveland. I haven't seen any in NH this summer, though we have had plenty of other varieties.

There are still a couple of monarchs fluttering around the heptacodium, but most appear to have moved on.... The heptacodium is starting to lose some of its flowers now - there is a sprinkling of white on the ground under it. It really is perfectly timed to match the monarchs' emergence, preparation for migration, and migration. It also matches nicely for the humming birds' migration. And the bees also go nuts for it. It would appear to be every bit as suited for its place here as any native plant woul be. I wonder if it flowers earlier further south, which could perhaps make it less well synced with migrations...?

One thing I noticed about the heptacodium this year that I hadn't noticed before is that it has been pumping out a lovely sweet scent, particularly in the evening. I assume perhaps that the tree is now big enough that the scent is stronger because there are more flowers. I'm surprised that I never noticed it before - my nose usually works better than that! :-)

I will be very curious to see how many Monarchs end up in Mexico this year. All summer , folks on the butterfly garden forum have been saying they've had more butterflies, eggs and caterpillars than they have in a number of years. It doesn't make sense to me, when the number that overwintered in Mexico last year was the fewest since they have been recording, by far. So, where did all these Monarchs come from? Chip Taylor, the founder of Monarch Watch, reported that the weather early on, and the weather that was predicted for the summer, was not going to be ideal for rapid development of eggs and caterpillars. Maybe the same problems facing Monarchs are giving their predators difficulties, as well. Fewer predators would mean more butterflies reach adulthood and get a chance to travel to Mexico.

I noticed them visiting my heptacodium too these days.

Pics from yesterday.

G

green_go - monarchs show so beautifully against the pristine white heptacodium flowers, don't they?! How big/old is your heptacodium? Is it growing as a shrub or tree?

catkin - you've stumped DH on that one...:-). I think you're west of the Rocies, right...? Maybe it is something that we don't have here. Whatever it is is very pretty. Annette, is it something that you re recognize?

woody, I have 2 heptacodiums and I love them! They are still relatively young (3 years) and I am growing them as multi-trunk trees (though it is difficult with these unruly plants :) )

This is a picture of one of them from October last year:

'Unruly'? I've not found mine to be 'unruly', although it is a fast grower and we do need to prune out branches that spread too wide. After the flowers finish this year I need to cut back one branch that is too low/blocking part of one paths in the front bed. I've been waiting for the monarchs to be finished with it before lopping it back from the path.

You'rs is looking very good. The peeling bark becomes more attractive as the trunk gets thicker. I do wish it had nice fall color, but mine just turns sort of tan before the leaves start dropping. But its other positive attributes makes the lack of fall color forgivable :-)

Edited - I just noticed the pink show in your picture - lucky you! I've never got that here...

catkin, the black butterfly might be a type of white admiral.