The fluttering of one butterfly’s wings - so gentle, so soft – is, of course, inaudible. If you’re very quiet, however, and in the presence of millions of monarchs high in the hills of the Rosario Sanctuary, you can hear a sound like a slight breeze stirring leaves, and you know you have heard butterflies. Bill and I were there in January, when the monarchs were hibernating, hanging in great clusters in the tall Oyamel firs. This weekend I went back with Edith, Ceci, Cati and Amparo.
In February we can see the mariposas leaving their clusters to fly around and mate before their long journey north begins in March. They perch on some smaller trees like so many orange Christmas ornaments, or catch a current and fly up, contrasting with the bright blue sky, or land in a wet spot to drink, or alight on yellow, red, and lavender flowers in their forest. It is indeed their forest; they move through their domain as schools of fish do through the sea, and we humans observe in awe, knowing that we are witnessing an ancient, mysterious, and endangered phenomenon.
In February we can see the mariposas leaving their clusters to fly around and mate before their long journey north begins in March. They perch on some smaller trees like so many orange Christmas ornaments, or catch a current and fly up, contrasting with the bright blue sky, or land in a wet spot to drink, or alight on yellow, red, and lavender flowers in their forest. It is indeed their forest; they move through their domain as schools of fish do through the sea, and we humans observe in awe, knowing that we are witnessing an ancient, mysterious, and endangered phenomenon.
Local people have known about this marvel of nature for thousands of years, and the Monarch has been an important symbol in their mythology and rituals. In the 1970's National Geographic published an article about the "discovery" of the over-wintering grounds of the Monarch, and the rest of North America got in on the secret.
Across all of North America, not just in Mexico, population growth,
deforestation, and wide-spread use of herbicides threaten the Monarch. You can find further details about their migration on the Feb. 4 entry.
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Brenda
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