Can't believe it: http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0129/Is-the-annual-Monarch-butterfly-migration-coming-to-an-end

There is an embedded link for free Asclepia seeds.

Thanks for posting that Dale.
There are many species of Asclepias, and many of them are hosts for Monarchs and quite pretty. Prairie Moon has several, purple milkweed is particularly nice.
http://www.prairiemoon.com/seeds/wildflowers-forbs/asclepias-purpurascens-purple-milkweed.html 

Asclepias speciosa grows every where here, I'd be willing to try to send seeds to anyone interested in growing it.

I've always had some milkweed in the garden.  I remember one year when the caterpillars decided to move onto my orchids to form pupa's.  I must have had 20 or more and it was beautiful.  Once I find my new house and land there will always be room for them.

There will also be parsley for the black swallowtails and pawpaw for the zebras and a bunch of other stuff too

that is a shame. so many things are slowly disappearing. 

Me too do grow some nice late blooming perennial milkweed plants in my front yard.
Never seen any Monarch caterpillars on them though.

I have seen caterpillars of both more yellowish and blackish butterflies (Swallowtails?)
on my (annual)dill/(perennial)fennel plants in the back yard.

my Passion Flower vine is always home to Monarchs...all year long.

I have only seen the caterpillars on actual milkweed plants.  It seems like sometimes every plant had one and other times I had to look very hard to find even one.  One year there were hundreds.  When I harvest the parsley I always move the black swallowtail caterpillars to the plants I set aside for them.  I used to keep sweet gum trees planted just for the moths too.

A lot of butterflies are in trouble so here's a website that list plants that provide nectar for adults or food for the caterpillars.  There are a lot of sources for the plant but this is a nice list. http://www.butterflybushes.com/index.htm  Butterfly bushes can be invasive so plant with care but she has a great list.

Not so slow, Pete. And I am having deja vu. When  I was a kid, goldfinches would darken the sky in huge flocks, then, suddenly,  no more huge flocks. Of course, I did not know then that I was witnessing "Silent Spring." Now the same for monarchs? I fear that we are becoming impoverished of natural beauty.

The article provacatively poses the question... Is it coming to an end? It then reveals that *gasp* lowest numbers since they began studying... in 1993. A species that has been around 100s or 1000s of years... one low number out of 20 years of study.. hardly reason for concern.

Phil

For anyone who's interested in invertebrate conservation, check out the Xerces Society: http://www.xerces.org/

Well, this may be OT but there were more than a dozen robins (all male) drinking run off from our last snow. I have never seen robins in Denver in January in 50 years. Very weird things are happening everywhere.

Here's a link if any of you wanted to get some seeds, as Dale mentioned in his initial post:
http://www.livemonarch.com/free-milkweed-seeds.htm

And another interesting article about other uses of milkweed:
http://www.csmonitor.com/The-Culture/Gardening/diggin-it/2010/1015/Milkweed-Not-just-for-monarch-butterflies

And here's one of the related articles in the CSM:
http://www.csmonitor.com/Science/2014/0130/Bye-bye-butterfly-How-you-can-fight-the-Monarch-die-off-video

On the other side of the coin - the arctic Snowy Owl is in the news.
Unusual sightings along the east cost down to FL have been reported.