Each year starting around this time, and depending on specific weather patterns, the Monarch butterflies are starting their journey South to Mexico for the winter. Due to use of pesticides, loss of habitat, and specific food sources, the Monarch migrations the last couple of years have been much smaller than in the past. All last summer we only saw one Monarch, when this was once the most common butterfly we would see. One thing they need is milkweed, but as a noxious weed for farmers, there's not as much of it around as their used to be so we made a point of hunting down a pod of seeds, and planting some on our property in a bid to attract some Monarchs and do our part to provide them what they need to bounce back hopefully. Well not sure if it's related but last night there was a change in the weather and cooler temperatures have arrived (often a trigger for them to start moving South), and we noted a few monarchs around, and then realized they had chosen some trees in our back yard to rest for the night... We noticed several small clusters of butterflies forming on some different trees... If you were not paying attention you might not even notice they were there, since they are well disguised looking like dried up leaves when their wings are folded. But when a new one would join the group they would all flutter their wings and flash bright orange, so I shot a video of that... We were having people over for dinner and I shot all this just before they arrived, and I didn't take more photos after that. But the butterflies continued to gather with more floating in, circling down, and joining those that were there. They ended up forming 2 main clusters that probably had 40 or 50 in each cluster. When we got up this morning we saw them waking up and flying away, continuing their journey South. When they all head a little further South of here, they often end up at Point Pelee National Park, which is a park on the North shore of Lake Erie that has the Southern most point of mainland in Canada, known as "the tip" - photo of the tip from a previous trip there: Note that out in the lake there are two islands, which are also still in Canada - Pelee Island and Middle Island, but the tip is the last part of the mainland. Map showing Point Pelee and the islands: I follow the park's Twitter feed, and they had a much bigger gathering of Monarch's there last night... They often gather at this spot for a rest before making the long 90 km flight across the open water of the lake. Probably the longest stretch they have without land to rest on their entire journey. One of these days we will time it right to be there to see a gathering like they describe, but for now we were pretty happy to see as many gather in our back yard as we did last night! Just thought I'd share this, as we were pretty excited to see this happening on our own yard. Cheers, Al
Thank you for the post, AL. I never paid much attention to butterflies but it is true that when I was a kid they used to be more numerous. Nowadays you see few of them. Great video and photos! Thanks! Claudio
Thanks for sharing! The decline in insect populations around the world is truly disturbing. We (humans) need to get our shit together
Beautiful post, Al ... a needed reminder of the glory and fragility of nature. And that life is about more than watches. (Wait ... what?)
Yea Al! Thanks for the post. We'll be looking for them down here in Texas about the middle of October. Recall a time nearly 40 years ago when Mrs. noelekal and I were hiking on our old family place at the lake. We hiked around to the back side of our duck hunting slough and were walking along the shore line just before dusk in a place where a stand of oak spills down a hill right to the lake. We suddenly walked into a Monarch roosting stop with thousands of butterflies still flitting about and tens of thousands on the lower branches of the trees. I'd never seen such a sight before. It was magical. It was on October 16th that year. Perhaps they liked being near the water? The spot is only about 10 yards from the water's edge. I've seen them there since but in far less numbers than that first time they were discovered. I recall seeing hoards of migrating Monarchs floating through the pastures on our home place on sunny autumn afternoons when I was a kid, but never saw trees weighted down with them before.
Bryan, it's always magical on my birthday! Al, thanks for a beautiful thread! I garden and I always have a milkweed parcel for these beauties....
Thank you for sharing Al! A wonderful site to see, perhaps I will plant some milkweed next year as well...
I loved seeing you write about this. My wife and I just happened to go to Point Pelee today with friends of ours! I only have a simple iPhone camera so didn’t get any great pictures, but the live viewing was very neat. There’s a sign commemorating the southernmost point of mainland Canada. The butterflies hang in large clusters. They’re almost hidden when closed and gorgeous red when they open. The tip of Point Pelee is spectacular. Today it was a stark contrast between the left side of the tip (windy and very wavy) while the right side was calm. There’s an amazing convergence in the middle looking out at the tip. Hard to prove in still photos, but standing at the same place where the previous two pictures were taken, this was the view to the right side of the tip. Currents at the tip are very dangerous and several lives have been lost over the years when swimmers ventured too close to the tip and were pulled under. The evening finished with a beautiful sunrise!
Thanks Am. They don't make their way out west any more. At least, I haven't seen them for at least a few years.
Great photos Al. The monarchs will begin arriving here before too long, we'll be going out for the annual Monarch count at Hackberry Flat, not to far from here, between Oct. 2-8. I don't know what other states do but the Oklahoma department of Fish and Wildlife will give you milkweed to plant if you ask.
Interesting, albeit useless, trivia about Point Pelee... it's on the same lattitude as the northern most counties of California. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Point_Pelee_National_Park
When I lived in Santa Barbara, there was a particular area north of the city where the monarchs always seemed to visit. Here in Colorado, we have a different butterfly migration - Painted Lady. They don't seem to swarm in the same way as monarchs. Instead you just see dozens of them passing through day after day. Last year (2017), there was an epic Painted Lady migration; they were absolutely everywhere, for weeks.
