Allen Smith: During the winter months, I usually have more time to spend on projects like repairing and cleaning bird house and bird feeders and things like this butterfly box. But for most of us, we’d cheerily don’t think of butterflies during the winter. But haven’t you wondered where they’ve all gone?
Well one butterfly that we all know, the Monarch, is spending time away from the cold in its winter home. Ro Vaccaro is a Monarch butterfly enthusiast of the first order and she and other friends of the monarchs are dedicated to preserving their winter habitat in Pacific Grove, California.
Ro Vaccaro: In order to over winter, there’s a split migration. All of the butterflies headed south for a special place that they can survive through the winter. All of the butterflies east of the Rocky Mountains fly 35 hundred miles all the way down to Mexico where there are five wonderful groves north of Mexico City. All of the butterflies generally west of the Rocky Mountains fly to the California Coast and there are five huge locations that are lucky like us to have butterfly over winter in trees.
Allen Smith: How many monarchs do you expect in Pacific Grove this year?
Ro Vaccaro: Last year and the year before it, we had 65 thousand so that’s probably good and they’re generally sleeping on 10 trees, so you can imagine the thickness. It’s like orange icing on the branches.
Allen Smith: It’s hard to imagine such delicate creatures travelling so far. No wonder they need their winter rest.
From the garden, I’m Allen Smith.
Now if you’d like more information on this topic or other information, just check out my website plnsmith.com.
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