In the pasture the mint is as high as my eye and is in bloom. It’s covered with pollinators, a variety of bees, other insects, and butterflies. Here are a few pix that I caught recently. Goldenrod is also in bloom, but doesn’t seem to be as popular as the mint.
There are lots of Monarch butterflies and every patch of milkweed has caterpillars. I counted twenty on one large milkweed, but only one chrysalis so far.
New blooms: white-star clematis.
Rainbow between T-storms, in Lebanon, NH, on the way to see Blinded by the Light. We loved the rainbow and the movie.
Monarch on milkweed. There are lots of butterflies this year.
Three Monarch caterpillars of about twenty on this large clump of swamp milkweed, Asclepias incarnata.
A Monarch Chrysalis on the same plant, the first one I've seen this year.
When the caterpillars decide to metamorphose, they fasten onto the underside of a leaf and form a hook shape like this one to become a Chrysalis.
Painted Lady on mint.
White Admiral also on mint.
Also on the mint, another Monarch?? No, it's a Viceroy. The chief difference is that line on the hindwing that intersects all the other lines. It's an example of mimicry as a survival advantage. the Monarchs are toxic to birds, who avoid them, so the Viceroys get that protective benefit by looking like the Monarchs without having to develop the protective toxicity mechanism.
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