Monarchs in peril!
“Bring Back The Monarchs”
California’s butterflies (Danaus plexippus), this time….
A photoessay by CNN’s Daniel Terdiman, with photos of Natural Bridges State Beach (1) and Lighthouse Field State Beach (1) in Santa Cruz, CA (1), and the Monarch Grove Sanctuary in Pacific Grove, CA (1, 2):
(overwintering spots for California’s monarch butterflies) details the plight of the monarchs, which have dropped in number from over 100,000 each year to fewer than 10,000. If you have never seen butterflies hanging like clusters of leaves on branches, see this essay.
An organization called “Monarch Watch” is:
“… initiating a nationwide landscape restoration program called ‘Bring Back The Monarchs.’ The goals of this program are to restore 19 milkweed species, used by monarch caterpillars as food, to their native ranges throughout the United States and to encourage the planting of nectar-producing native flowers that support adult monarchs and other pollinators.”
As many schoolkids know, monarchs lay their eggs on toxic milkweed leaves, where the hungry caterpillars will forage and accumulate the poisons and carry them into their adult butterfly stage. Predators have learned to associate the coloration of the monarchs with a bad-tasting meal, and leave other monarchs alone.
Every fall, monarch butterflies will travel as far as 1,500 miles to overwinter in places like Santa Cruz and Pacific Grove. (Good choices! 
) The butterfly individuals that overwinter THIS year are fourth- and fifth-generation descendants of the individuals who overwintered LAST year!
The Monarch Watch Web site has a variety of resources for those who would like to help, ranging from their Monarch Waystation Program, to information on raising monarchs at home and in the classroom, to instructions on growing your own milkweed, to ordering information for “Monarch Watch tags, T-shirts, seeds, posters, videos, live critters and a whole lot more!”
-Bill at
Cheshire Cat Photo™ – “Your Guide to California’s Wonderland™”
You can view higher-resolution photos (*generally* 7-30 megabytes, compressed) at the Cheshire Cat Photo™ Pro Gallery on Shutterfly™, where you can also order prints and gifts decorated with the photos of your choice from the gallery. The Cheshire Cat Photo Store on Zazzle contains a wide variety of apparel and gifts decorated with our images of California. Framed prints and prints on canvas can be ordered from our galleries on redbubble®. All locations are accessible from here. Be a “Facebook Fan” of Cheshire Cat Photo here! If you don’t see what you want or would be on our email list for updates, send us an email at info@cheshirecatphoto.com.
©2010 William F. Hackett. All Rights Reserved.
