Summer doesn’t get any better as it was today. I will never get used to the high humidity that we have here around the Mississippi Valley in parts of the summer. For my friends in Germany, I tell you, this can wear you out! Today it was warm, but by far not so humid as during the last couple weeks. Real summer joy!!!
My friend Maren Arndt, a very environmental conscious photographer who lives in the northern part of Germany, reports on her Facebook site about the fact that they see a lot less insects on the windshields of cars and trains in comparison to just a few years ago. Some light-minded people may think this is great, because it saves them from cleaning their windshield so often… As much as some insects can become obnoxious for us humans at times, but they still serve an important role in the food chain… The scary part of the story.
We watch the population of any critter, and of course butterflies, here in our neck of the woods very closely since twelve years. We don’t panic if in some years we don’t see the same numbers of a species as the year before, but whatever we monitor, I don’t see a better picture. Ok, I still try to stay positive!
According to my sources the Eastern Comma is a common butterfly in the eastern part of North America but the first and last time I took a picture was in 2013. Glad to have the Eastern Comma back in our yard, but overall it hasn’t been a real good year for butterflies yet.