TRR photo by Ed Wesely Note how the tongue of this small skipper butterfly is inserted into the cup of a milkweed flower. Sometimes up to a dozen skippers will feed at a single clump of milkweed flowers.

July’s milkweed visitors. We encourage about two dozen milkweed plants in our garden for the beauty and fragrance of the flowers, but more because of this plant’s value to honeybees, butterflies, and many colorful beetles and bugs that depend on it for food and survival.

As the flowers open at the end of June, they lure large and small butterflies, honeybees, day-flying moths, insect predators and an occasional hummingbird. Tiny hummingbird moths, insects that mimic the ability of hummingbirds to hover and dart, also show up.

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Seventh annual Callicoon Regatta

CALLICOON, NY—This year’s annual Callicoon Regatta will be setting out from the Red Barn in Hankins at 11:00 a.m. on Saturday, July 10, and finishing 7.3 miles downriver in Callicoon.

Check-in time is 9:00 a.m. The race will be followed by a chicken barbeque and a raffle of items including a kayak at the Delaware Youth Center. Canoeists should start being visible to spectators on the Callicoon bridge at about 11:50 a.m.

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Eldred unveils nature/hiking trail

By RICHARD A. ROSS

richardross@riverreporter.com

ELDRED, NY—How about a scenic walk through the woods or a jog along a trail used by the cross-country team? The newly completed nature/hiking trail that traverses three-quarters of a mile was recently opened to the public.

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Also in this issue:

• A canoe tour of local plants
• Become a Master Gardener

A D V E R T I S E M E N T S