Yesterday evening we went for a walk with friends on the nearby Trans Canada Trail. At one point we came upon a large area of wildflowers called covered with Monarch butterflies. I have never seen so many at once. Many of the flowers had so many butterflies on them that we thought they were leaves at first. They did not seem to be eating. We thought they had just hatched out and were drying their wings. They seemed to be vibrating their wings and they were not very good at flying. It was easy to get right close to them and even touch them. In all the years we have lived here, we have never seen this before. We will probably go back again today but we think it may be a phenomenon that lasts only a few hours and then they all fly away. If that is so, we feel incredibly lucky to have arrived at just the right time. I looked up the purple flower in my plant book and it is a type of wild Liatris commonly called Blazing Star. The other darker one is Curly Dock, a common weed around here that is often used in dry plant arrangements.
