Have you seen any Monarch butterflies?

 

The mighty Monarch

To me, Monarchs are a symbol of summer, of that relaxed state of mind that comes from being outdoors on a sunny summer day. I find it centering to walk across a hillside or along a country road lined with native plants, where the warm breezes and sunshine are pouring into my mind, making me see things a little abstractly, yet helping me live in the beauty of the moment. Those are the kind of moments where Monarch butterflies appear. When they are nowhere to be found, I get a little worried.

Every spring, those delicate little winged wonders fly from Mexico to the Great Lakes, where they lay eggs on milkweed plants. The emerging caterpillar feeds on the milkweed plant, then forms a chrysalis. The adult Monarch butterfly emerges about two weeks later. According to this CBC.ca article, monarch butterflies likely had a good start this year, since there were good conditions in their wintering ground in Mexico. But on their migration route, things got dry in Texas, and that meant food shortages. And our rainy spring and early summer meant difficult times for Monarchs as well.  Never mind the tremendous amount of development that has swallowed up butterfly habitats over the past 50 years. Still, some Monarchs have been spotted in Canada.

There are definitely a few things we can do to support our orange and black icons of summer. Pesticide bans in many areas across Canada will no doubt help protect Monarchs. We can also create small habitats on the land we control. Naturally, milkweed is an important species for Monarchs. Unfortunately many people think of milkweed as a weed, and it is often curtailed from roadsides and private property. And these days, more and more of what was once natural space is now private property. If you want to grow milkweed, take a handful of seeds from a ripe seed pod and sow them into the ground in the fall. Milkweed prefers well-drained soil in a sunny location. from For a list of additional plants you can grow that help support butterflies, click here.

Have you seen any Monarch butterflies this year?