Monarch tales==

From MSNBC this a.m. There is a move afoot to establish a "Monarch flyway corridor" down Inerstate 35 from MN to MX. Monarchs have dropped from two billion plus down to 500 mil over the past years due to environmental damage.

Did you know? No one Monarch butterfly makes the entire journey from MN to MX. It takes six generations! One starts out, lives out its life cycle and lays an eggs. The egges hatch and another generation takes on the next leg of the journey. Rob, now you know why it is hard to believe what you hear on MSNBC!

I hope they are going to be planting milkweed along the way, since that's what they feed on. I hear there is another flyway in the works for the west coast!

One of the items on our bucket list was seeing the butterflies in one of the Reserves about 2 hours from Morelia. We really enjoyed the visit except Kathie will never ride a horse again for the stirrups were not adjusted properly for she got bruises bad by not being able to put her feet in the stirrups going up and down the side of the mountain.

and they only lay their eggs on milkweed as well. Here's the link to a short, interesting article from National Geographic.

the milkweed connection

There are a couple of sites here in Ky that sell Monarch eggs- your milkweed needs to be established before the eggs will be shipped.

What I've read is that the summer migration occurs over several generations, while the winter migration -- with butterflies that are actually different, much longer-lived than the summer ones -- occurs in only one.

THis from MonarchButterfly.com:
At the end of the winter, monarchs end diapause, becoming ready to mate and lay eggs as they move northward. Once they become reproductively active, they’ll only live another few weeks. Their eggs then mark the start of another annual life cycle, as the first generation of monarchs is born again. Unlike the summer generations, which only live for 2-5 weeks as adults, winter butterflies live 7-9 months – surviving a long southward migration, several months in Mexico, and a northward migration back into the southern US.

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http://www.OneMansWonder.com

The U.S.A. now has plans to plant a Billion (yes, capital B) milkweed plant between Minnesota and Texas. That's a major route for their migration.

Planting could begin this year. Here's a link to the article in this morning's paper.

http://www.startribune.com/calling-all-milkweed-federal-pollinator-plan-needs-a-billion-plants-for-monarchs/306383591/

Our neighbor has had several milkweed plants in her yard. She tries to remove the seed pods before they break open, but we still get a few plants in our yard.

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Follow Bob & Millie's adventures with their photo galleries on SmugMug.
http://bobmillie.smugmug.com/

Paul I would be interested in picking your brain about your visit to the monarchs. Will you email me when you have time? Thanks DebMN

Also see Federal pollinator plan needs a billion plants for monarch butterflies

If you're looking for some really good fiction to read on this subject, I suggest Flight Behavior by Barbara Kingsolver.