The "Incredible Monarchs" Story

Monarch butterflies making their way south.

It was an ordinary day.  Sorting through a small crawl-space in one of our bedrooms when I came across a small cabinet that I had built for my youngest son Tad when he was a young boy.  He loved insects of all kinds, but especially butterflies.  The cabinet was about two feet long by one foot wide and three inches deep.  Had a sliding Plexiglas top on the larger dimension side of the box that allowed entrance into the cabinet.  On the bottom of the cabinet I took a piece of one inch thick Styrofoam and covered it with felt.  The perfect box for a collection of insects, primarily butterflies.  One of the most common butterflies we have in our area of the world is the Monarch.  Really neat looking butterfly that is easily found and great for collecting.  Tad, as well as myself, did some research on the monarchs and found their interesting tale.  Seems that in the fall every year millions of monarchs migrate from the eastern United States and Canada to the wooded land of central Mexico, a journey of 2,000 miles.  The beautiful butterflies arrive in Mexico in late October and early November to hibernate in fir trees, clinging together like clusters of fall leaves.  In February they start to awaken in the sun and begin the search for their mates.  This generation of monarchs lives four or five months, but the life cycle of the butterfly seems to be a mystery of sorts.  Most monarchs live only four or five weeks, but the generation that makes the long migratory journey to Mexico is the generation that lives four or five months.  They breed, the females lay their eggs on the road north and die along the way with the males.  The new generation finds their way to eastern United States and Canada and again, after five generations of new monarchs, they use their built-in GPS system to find their way south again.  The numbers have been diminishing recently due to logging, insecticide and environmental issues.  I hope that the amazing monarch never becomes extinct.  When our children were young, my wife Carol and I made a fall weekend trip to Ocean City, New Jersey while my parents kept the children.  We timed it for the monarch invasion along the shore.  Amazing is about the only word I can think of.  As we stood on our porch of the Stingray Motel, looking out over the endless waves of the Atlantic Ocean, the air was filled with the colors of orange and black, for you see, it was the time of the year for the generation of monarchs to make their southern journey to Mexico.  Nature is a wonderful and colorful thing.  It was another extraordinary day in the life of an ordinary guy.