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[quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous][quote=Anonymous]I gotta say, I went out at lunch -- my front yard is all flowers, mostly natives/pollinator-friendly species -- and there were hardly any bees or butterflies out there compared to previous years. So far we have only seen those little white butterflies (which I hope aren't cabbage butterflies, since I have planted eggplant) -- no monarchs, no black, yellow, or blue swallowtails, and none of the little orange, yellow, or brown types we usually see. We currently have coneflowers, liatris, milkweed, sunflowers, coreopsis, monarda/wild bergamot, agastache/hyssop, and lavender in bloom, and usually they are covered with flying things. Last year we could literally have a hundred bees of at least a half dozen different species on the hyssop alone, today I could count them on one hand and zero bumblebees or honeybees. It's worrisome. [/quote]
It’s legitimately frightening. I don’t have much native (yet), but the absence of birdsong is noticeable. I have some plants that are basically weeds (I haven’t gotten close, but I think one is aster and I know one is a native silene) that I would have pulled in years past. They’re staying now. [/quote]

They must be all in my yard. We've noticed the orange swallowtails, the little flittering brown/orange onces, moths, bees of many species, hummingbirds. Monarchs we have seen later in the season. My milkweed is just now blooming.  We've had loads of bird nests this year: robins, blue birds, wrens, chickadees, finches. We've even idenfied a new bird species we have never seen before. So be patient. It could take a couple of years. Longer if your neighbors use lots of pest/herbicides. Some bees -mason bees for example- will not nest in areas with that stuff.

Good luck and thanks for doing what you're doing. [/quote]

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