Mexican Monarch Butterfly Sancturary – Insectamonarca's Blog

The southern journey has begun. According to Journey North

Journey North citizen scientists in southern Ontario, the Midwest, and the Northeast still reported monarch activity, including roosting behavior and directional flight. With temperatures falling and daylight shortening, reports in these areas will continue to drop over the coming weeks.

Yesterday I was out in the Saratogo Community Garden and I did not see any Monarch Butterflies. The nights are dropping to the 40 degree F range and butterflies can not fly under 50 degrees F. Last week was a definite week of Monarch Butterfly sightings. There were Mexican sunflowers that the Monarch is drawn to with its bright orange color.

Be safe little Monarch Butterfly and may you have a successful journey back to Mexico. El Dia de los Muertos is on November 1, and the people in the mountains of Mexico look at the Monarch Butterfly as their ancestors returning, and they celebrate their annual return with festivities to honor the butterfly and their own departed.

“Our dead are never dead to us, until we have forgotten them.” — George Eliot
https://www.ibtimes.com/dia-de-los-muertos-quotes-english-15-sayings-celebrate-day-dead-2144662

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/1e/Altardediademuertos.jpg

“Monarch butterflies, with their striking black-and-orange coloring, have made a partial recovery in numbers of butterflies migrating from the U.S. and Canada to Mexico this year, after historic lows last year.

Omar Vidal, director of the conservation group World Wildlife Fund Mexico, says the increase this year — 9.9 acres of colonies of butterflies, more than double of the 4.7 acres of last year — is positive news,” reports the Associated Press.

“These figures are encouraging, compared to last year, because they show a trend toward recovery,” Vidal said.

Lincoln Brower, an expert on monarch butterflies and a zoology professor at the University of Florida, says while this year’s recovery is good news, each time the butterflies “recover,” they still are lower than in the past.

“What is ominous is that all of the last seven years have been below average,” he said.

Rosendo Caro, director of the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve, says the number of tourists has fallen as much as 50% in recent years, down from as many as 110,000. Drug gangs in Michoacan, where the reserve is located, have prompted travel warnings about the area, though no violence has occurred within the 193,000-acre reserve.

Read the full article from Associated Press http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/L/LT_MEXICO_MONARCH_BUTTERFLIES?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2011-02-14-14-54-42