Our newest monarch came out to greet the day this morning. Because it was raining where she had her chrysalis, we gently moved her a foot or so so she was under the shelter of the portico. It seemed a friendlier place to work on unfolding and practicing with the wings.She was certainly taking everything in -- I love the raindrops on her delicate antenna in these pictures!
Later this month, the monarchs will start their southern migration. If you live in the neighbourhood of Point Pelee Park, you should circle the calendar, because the monarch migration piles up at the Tip of the Park, and you can see really really large concentrations of these butterflies as they prepare for the trip south.
It's a 3000 km. trip, so they need favourable conditions -- warm weather and a nicely directed breeze. They mainly glide, which makes sense because fluttering their wings all that way would burn through massive quantities of energy.
One of Nature's true miracles, we're just delighted that some of them begin their journey here with us, and we look forward to their return every year.
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