The butterflies are everywhere – swirling about our faces, alighting on bushes, quivering in the sunshine on nectar-laden lupines. Thousands upon thousands of delicate orange-and-black Monarchs fill our view.
When clouds scuttle overhead, we even hear the sussuring of the butterfly wings, like soft rain falling, as they flutter to the trees to huddle in clumps.
It’s quite magical – almost other-worldly.
Migration of Monarch butterflies to Mexico
In January, we visited the Sierra Chincua Sanctuary in the Monarch Butterfly Biosphere Reserve near Morelia, Mexico.
A UNESCO World Heritage Site, the natural protected site is where Monarch butterflies huddle for the winter after flying up to 3,000 miles south from Canada and the U.S.
The story of the migration of the Monarch butterflies is truly remarkable – a special “Methusalah” generation even lives longer than other generations so these butterflies can survive the perilous journey.
Sadly, though, Monarchs are under great threat from us…
Continue reading the amazing story of the migration of Monarch butterflies
Why are Monarchs threatened? What’s it like to hike and ride a horse into the Oyamel fir forests, 10,000 feet high in the mountains outside Morelia, to a butterfly sanctuary to see these beautiful butterflies in the wild? See our travel article “Flight of the Monarchs” (online version of print article), published September 7, 2014 in The Province.