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Our trip to Maine two years ago was just about exactly this time of the month of July. At our friend's house in Tenant Harbor, there was a wonderful flower garden....and the butterflies all knew it. And among them was "flock" (there was a discussion the other day of what a flock, herd, pod....of butterflies is or might be called...) of the most wondrous of all butterflies, and indeed one of the most wondrous animals on earth, the North American Monarch Butterfly.....which migrates from NE United States and Eastern Canada to one valley in the mountains of Mexico for the winter, semi-hibernating, then leave north in the spring, mate, lay eggs and die. They live about 3/4 of a year...their offspring, and two more generations migrate north and east, with their caterpillars living on milkweed leaves (those not killed by Roundup) on the edges of fields, with the third generation migrating back to a valley they have never been to in Mexico, and repeating the cycle. I have heard that they migrate by sensing magnetic fields. When we sail on the Chesapeake Bay in September, we see them migrating west across the Chester River and the Chesapeake Bay...a distance of 5-8 miles, generally in to the wind. We see them as singles, or a few flying more or less together. They flutter up, glide down, flutter up.....glide down...seemingly they conserve energy that way. Their numbers are dropping precipitously, likely due to the use of Roundup (thank you Monsanto). They are truly among the great wonders and miracles of nature.

Peter

Tags: Close-up and macro Miracles Monarch butterfly Maine Migration

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