Photo by Bryan Kirk Monarchs that we hatch in the Butterfly Barn are outfitted with small wing tags supplied by the Monarch Watch program of the University of Kansas.

First migrants. On August 31 Mary Greene observed a monarch butterfly, “flying strongly south over the fields behind my house,” near Beaver Brook in Sullivan County. It was the earliest reported migrant in 2004.

Then, Eve Skier, coach of the girl’s tennis team at Honesdale High School, watched a monarch drift south across the courts during a practice on September 1.

And as I write on Labor Day, I’ve been handed a message from Joyce Rioult of Berlin Township, who observed a monarch flying south through her yard about 10:45 a.m.

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I am the… Complete Tangler

By August 24, it had been seven weeks since I took a fly rod to a trout stream. This sad fact was caused more or less in equal parts by drenching downpours, visiting bands of children and grandchildren and frequently high and discolored stream flows. Possibly because of this, I once again found myself locked in the jaws of the black dog of depression.

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Crop Walk aims to help endhunger locally and globally

BY SUSAN M. BUZZELL

WHITE SULPHUR SPRINGS, NY—The First Annual Sullivan County Crop Walk will be held on Sunday, October 3, rain or shine, at 2:00 p.m., with registration at 1:30 p.m. The two- to five-mile walk will begin and end at the White Sulphur Springs Fireman’s Park on Shore Road.

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Also in this issue:

• Stars brought down to earth