Saturday, July 7, 2012

Milkweed and Monarchs

Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed Bloom
Milkweed's a-bloom at the Charles River Peninsula and the Monarch Butterflies are on it.
Monarch Butterfly on Milkweed Blook
The largest number I've seen at the CRP in some time, fluttering all around
What?
fighting each other and... not fighting each other.
Matin' Monarchs
In other news...

Eastern Cottontail
A rabbit taking a dust bath!

And on the home front, the first wintergreen bloom I can remember in our front yard.

4 comments:

Josh Fecteau said...

I know that last plant as Striped Pipsissewa (Chimaphila maculata). The edible Eastern Spicy-wintergreen (Gaultheria procumbens) is often called simply Wintergreen or Teaberry and is also flowering in New England right now.

--Josh
http://joshfecteau.com

Peter Oehlkers said...

Thanks, Josh. "Striped wintergreen" is how I know it, but you're right, it is probably confusing (particularly as it is not the source of the "wintergreen" flavor folks are familiar with).

Josh Fecteau said...

You've got to love common names. In the New England Wild Flower Society's Flora Novae Angliae (2011), Arthur Haines calls the plant Spotted Prince's-pine.

Who can keep it all straight?

Peter Oehlkers said...

Yes! Bird folks have a better handle on this thanks to organizations such as the AOU. When the Common Moorhen suddenly becomes the Common Gallinule everyone jumps! (Though internationally suddenly things get tricky again).