We haven’t seen a monarch butterfly in our yard for more than three years. The population has been decimated during several decades due to climate change, increased use of pesticides, land development and loss of both their host plants and habitat to the point that biologists warn they may be facing extinction.

They lay their eggs on the milkweed plant, because it is the only food the monarch caterpillars eat.

They used to fly by the millions en masse each spring en route to Canada and again in the fall, when they began their migration back to Mexico.

Yesterday when I was watering flowers, I was amazed and heartened by seeing three monarch butterflies

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