Monarch.
I saw a monarch butterfly today. In fact, I’m pretty sure I saw two—a second one in the distance, headed south—but I got a great look at one as it fluttered around Jack and me on our late-in-the-day hike to the summit of Beech Hill Preserve.
Southern arrowweed berries.
I also rode my bike around today, did some errands, did some desk work, and thought about stuff. But the main thing was the monarch.
That’s big news, in my view, because of their sudden, precipitous decline—by as much as ninety percent, some say—thanks to Monsanto’s Roundup herbicide, a particularly potent killer of milkweed, which monarchs, those tiny, miraculous migrants, love. Rather than get creative, and use their imaginations, humans like to kill stuff that gets in their way. And suddenly monarchs are under consideration for the Endangered Species List.
But that’s all right, because Nature will solve everything one day.
P.S. Very few birds on the hill day, maybe because of the heat and the wind and a need to hide the youngsters.
Beech Hill List
Beginning at 5:15 p.m., I hiked the open trail.
1. Song Sparrow
2. American Crow*
3. Cedar Waxwing
4. Common Yellowthroat
5. Herring Gull*
6. Ruby-throated Hummingbird
7. Black-capped Chickadee** (v)
8. Blue Jay**
Elsewhere
9. Laughing Gull (v)
10. Northern Cardinal (v)
11. European Starling
12. Mourning Dove
v = Voice only
*Also elsewhere
**Voice only elsewhere
Tags: American crow, black-capped chickadee, blue jay, Cedar waxwing, common yellowthroat, European starling, herring gull, laughing gull, mourning dove, northern cardinal, ruby-throated hummingbird, song sparrow
