February 5 – Western Monarchs in Pismo

nPostednon February 5, 2014

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nHavenyou ever seen hundreds of thousands of orange butterflies blanketingntall eucalyptus trees? Most of the butterflies look like leaves thatnbarely move in the breeze-sheltered grove, but a few flutter fromnbranch to branch.
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When I first went to see the migrating monarchs, Insaw the few flying butterflies and was dazzled by how many therenwere. Maybe 100 or so! In nature, when do you see 100 identical-lookingnbutterflies flying around one small area at the same time? I was sonexcited!

nMynhusband asked me, “You see all the butterflies in the trees, don’tnyou?”

n“Ofncourse!” I answered. I was moving my eyes to follow their flutterynflights.

n“No,”nhe said. “I mean, you see all the monarchs that AREN’T moving,ndon’t you? The ones that look like leaves—not the ones flyingnaround?”

nAnd suddenly,njust like that, I saw what he was talking about; my brain made sense of what I was seeing—and thenflying butterflies became just a bit of background noise. I suddenlynsaw the thousands and thousands and thousands of still butterfliesnhanging in each and every tree.

nTherenwere so many butterflies clustered in each tree, I couldn’t actuallynsee the tree!

nIncouldn’t see the forest for the butterflies!

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nMonarchnbutterflies are the only North American butterfly known to migratensouth for the winter. Some fly hundreds of miles—some fly 3,000nmiles!—to their winter homes. In my home state of California, therenare groves of trees that shelter hundreds of thousands of butterfliesnfrom around November until February. One of these groves is in Pismo Beach, in Central California, where you can take a walk withndocents to see the monarch clusters all through the month ofnFebruary.

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