Thursday, October 12, 2017

a monarch passing




The journey magnífico!

You feel for them this time of the year. The monarch butterflies, little more than paper mache, on their long migration to mountain ranges in Mexico.

Do they even know their final destination? We think not. It is just somehow hard-wired into a brain as tiny as a grain of sand. The Mexican Sierra Madre Oriental Mountains are over 1600 miles away but that is by road. Monarchs take a more direct route over the Gulf of Mexico.


This one passed through the Garden Demonstration Site on the eminence above the Visitor Center at Ijams Nature Center Saturday afternoon before the heavy rains on Sunday. It just pausing long enough to seek food on a sprig of frostweed. And flippity-flap it moved on towards the southwest.

We are humbled by your nonchalance and courage.

Viaje seguro!






My new book has an entire chapter about them and their journey. And oh, how ephemeral they are. 


No comments: