Monarch Migration Season is Upon Us

Like the snowbird RVers, the Monarch butterflies are now making their northern migration. Unlike the snowbirds, however, a good number of them won’t be making it to their next destination–at least not on wing. Highway 95 is turning into the annual Monarch Mosh Pit–driving our RV down to Yuma yesterday, we must have extinquished the dreams of dozens of the migrating milkweed lovers.

Sad to say, there’s just no help for it. When the migration begins, these characters just come in droves, heedless of vehicle traffic. Their flight path takes them west across Highway 95, and north across Interstate 10. If you happen to be in the path, well, just be ready to feel guilt, and be looking for a good wash wand to clear the streaming film of yellow gunk that they leave behind.

Interestingly, the Monarch that leaves Mexico headed for Canada won’t actually make it there–butterfly biologists say that the Monarch, which lives but a couple of months, just can’t make the several-month journey back to the The Great White North country. So how do these winged wonders get there? Evidently, before these north-bounders die, they reproduce. Their offspring of two, possibly three generations then complete the trip. But on the way south, Monarchs enter a stage of life called diapause where reproduction ceases, and they live a longer lifespan.

For humans, school crossing guards make it a bit safer to cross the road. A pity the Monarchs don’t have the same protections.