Anyone notice the lack of butterflies and grasshoppers? [View all]

[gvstn]

Now, I'm fifty or so, but in my youth during recess we went out into the field behind our school and looked for and picked up grasshoppers even though they had some way of spraying you with some green juice. It was an actually activity scheduled by our school. Right or wrong but in those days you had to occupy the kids minds with something (pre-internet).

I was just thinking about this today. Forget grasshoppers, but I only saw one butterfly this summer. I'm not talking Monarchs, but any butterfly. They used to be so common that you would not even think about them. But they seem rarer now.

Has anyone seen a normal flow of butterflies? Larvae turning into butterflies was a normal part of science class because there were so many to be seen. But I just don't see so many. Does anyone, of my age, see a "normal" amount of butterflies? Or is it because
I just don't take enough walks in the park.