Have you ever gazed out of the kitchen window at your beautiful wildlife garden on a cold winter’s day? It looks so barren and lonely. Have you ever wondered where the butterflies go during this time of year?
As humans, we get to bundle up in our fuzzy flannels and spend the winter months indoors all snug in our homes, drinking hot chocolate. But what about the butterflies – our delicate winged wonders?
To Stay or to Go…that is the question
The gradual arrival of cooler nights, combined with the shorter daylight hours of the autumn season, signals all members of the insect kingdom to prepare for the onset of winter. Many of us are familiar with the most famous traveler of the butterfly family, the Monarch. The Monarch butterflies in North America that emerge during the fall season do not attempt to find a mate. Instead, they eat as much nectar as they can, in order to store up energy reserves in their body. Then those that were born East of the Rocky Mountains fly south all the way to Mexico to spend the winter in a warmer climate.
