freda holmes

kenora, ontario, canada

I'm 64 and retired from the dental field. I've always been interested in anything nature related but never focused on any particular area. My husband and I are active amateur birders, emphasis on the 'amateur' aspect. I do a lot of photography. We live at out cottage for 5 months of the year and are surrounded by river, rocks and trees on our 5 acre island. Nature abounds. We've been actively encouraging Monarch butterflies since ’96 and this year began raising them indoors due to huge predation of the eggs and 1st instar larvae. We’ve released 155 healthy Monarchs into our garden in the last couple of weeks…one chrysalis left. We have large areas of naturalized gardens which attract and nurture our butterflies. We don’t have a great variety of butterflies or moths in our area but we’re working at learning more about the ones we do have. (***I'm adding this update in July '08 since I discovered MOTHS! We may not have a great variety of butterflies but I'm amazed at the numbers of moths that have been visiting my blacklight set-up! It's a whole new world!) This site has been a great resource for us and I’m most appreciative of everyone’s help. As one of my photos becomes identified I tag it with the proper name and research it more thoroughly.