Comment by nemo
15 hours ago
I live in Austin, we used to have huge butterfly migrations long ago, they were amazing to see, big swarms of Queen butterflies as well as Monarchs and other species. Last year's was heartbreaking to see, handfuls where there once were swarms, though I think that was driven by the drought. I have a pollinator garden and have been tracking butterflies in iNaturalist for a decade, last few years the numbers have been showing real decline. I think it's mostly habitat loss for my area.
I remember these fluorishes from my ATX childhood. Now, a few states away, I still won't cut down milkweed (their feedsource).
Already, I'm beginning to worry about this year's hummingbird migration (my feeders, typically guarded by now, have been rotting for weeks). Even from a decade ago, local firefly populations seem diminished #Appalachia
But $tock$ are up. Rejoice.