I started noticing this last summer. Yesterday when I saw them out in my backyard I grabbed the camera and took some snaps and then hit the internet to find out more. Check this out...
Every fall, a magical event takes place in the animal world. Perhaps traveling over your own head right now--or clustered by the hundreds in a nearby tree--the annual monarch butterfly migration to Mexico is underway. By instinct alone, the butterflies go to the same mountains that their ancestors left the previous spring. Somehow, they find a place in Mexico that they've never seen before.
Of all the species of wildlife that migrate from Canada to winter in the temperate zones, few are more spectacular than the tiny Monarch Butterfly. They arrive without a sound and just as quietly disappear, always leaving a few stragglers feeding on the nectar of flowers and especially on their favorite milkweed till finally they too, float onward.
As recently as 1975 their purpose and destination remained a mystery. It was then that the Monarch's first winter habitat was discovered in the high mountains of Michoacan State west of Mexico City. The exact purpose of their migration and their ability to make the trip at all, remains an intriguing subject for scientists studying them today.
The tiny Monarchs fly distances as great as 3,100 miles, in a southwesterly direction, from Canada and the United States every year. Setting out in late August, they migrate to winter in Mexico's oyamel (fir tree) forests on Sierra Chincua. Unlike migrating birds, the Monarchs have never travelled the route they will follow because previous generations have died off before the journey begins. Many who start are more than three generations away from those that previously made the trip.
As recently as 1975 their purpose and destination remained a mystery. It was then that the Monarch's first winter habitat was discovered in the high mountains of Michoacan State west of Mexico City. The exact purpose of their migration and their ability to make the trip at all, remains an intriguing subject for scientists studying them today.
The tiny Monarchs fly distances as great as 3,100 miles, in a southwesterly direction, from Canada and the United States every year. Setting out in late August, they migrate to winter in Mexico's oyamel (fir tree) forests on Sierra Chincua. Unlike migrating birds, the Monarchs have never travelled the route they will follow because previous generations have died off before the journey begins. Many who start are more than three generations away from those that previously made the trip.
And its all happening in my backyard -- cool!
information courtesy of http://www.learner.org/jnorth/tm/monarch/AboutFall.html and http://www.travelassist.com/mag/a99.html
No comments:
Post a Comment