Witness the Migration of the Monarch Butterfly

...the last few days. We used to get a big swarm of them on the tree in our backyard, but now they’re just here and there. 4 years ago

Saturday, September 09, 2006
5:04 PM

146 monarch butterflies have flown overhead while we’ve been walking in the meadow at the Thickson woods preserve. It’s incredible how many of them are just passing by us at a time.

About 150 monarch butterflies we’ve seen already

oops, make that 151 with 26 seagulls looking like a group of raptors.

We stopped at 4:30 to take a walk at the Thickson woods nature preserve on the beautiful wide walkways through the fields of wildflowers. We walked off the main path and on a footpath through the top of the flowers. On the way we saw about three of them. I uncertainly said the three or four we saw were migrating. Little did I know. When we arrived at the edge of the lake at the top of the tall steep bank where the thermals were coming up over the side, we started noticing more monarchs flying up to 100 feet above us. They came alone. They came in small groups. We counted fifty in just few minutes. I said we needed to stay till we saw 100. So Willem hesitantly agreed, thinking it would take us forever. In about five minutes we were at 100 and then by the time we walked back to the car we were at 150. We went across to the woods and saw a few more there. But I think you have to walk back into the woods to see them roosting by the thousands in the trees. I wonder if there’s a certain kind of tree that they prefer.

Willem and I were enjoying ourselves there, having a wonderful time together. I told him how much I was glad to have a man who liked to stand there and count migrating monarchs with me! Someone that would stay there and count 100. He agreed.

So I said I was so glad that I have a husband who enjoys standing there counting 200 monarchs. He laughed, shook his head and disagreed. “No, I said 100!”

“I’m glad to have a man that wants to stand around counting 200 butterflies with me,” I repeated.

“Sorry,” he said, “you’ll have to shop around!” Grin. He’s so funny.

Later back in the car and on the highway he said as I typed, “I have to be so careful what I say!” as I read him what I’d just written.

“You wouldn’t want all the things you say to be just…gone!” I laughed.

“Yes I would!” He quickly responded, laughing.

I’m sitting in the car passenger seat looking for migrating monarchs. However, I can‘t see any black dots here anymore. I guess they’re too small to see at this speed. Also, we’re not as close to the water as we were before. I think they need to stay near the edge of the water to use the thermals to conserve their muscles. It’s hard to believe something as tiny as a monarch has muscles!

It’s very cloudy today. It rained here awhile ago, too. It was easy to see them against the white sky.

We’re quite close to the water here, but I can’t see any. We’re going so fast, that’s probably why,

“Hey, there’s one! I saw one!”

“Where?” Willem laughed then added, “Tick tick tick tick tick.” As I wrote that down.

All this right after I said we aren’t seeing anymore. I don’t see any dead ones along the roadside though. Perhaps the cars are making too much wind for them to get down this low.

Now we’re up to 156 monarchs.

I was thinking about those other types of butterflies that I’ve been seeing lately. They are very colorful, like the yellow ones. The big yellow ones. I’d like to put one of those in glass. It’s so neat to do that! To be ale to make them stay forever like that. I never got into doing that with the plants and flowers, but I like doing it with the butterflies. I’m so blessed to have these things to work with to do these things.

Why is it that I’ve never noticed the monarchs like this before? Is it because I found that one along the roadside and played with it with my glass and then thought it would be nice to make these, so I’ve been watching for anymore on the roadsides ever since then? 4 years ago