Showing posts with label monarch butterflies. Show all posts
Showing posts with label monarch butterflies. Show all posts

May 2 - First Saturday in May!

Posted on May 2, 2020

The first weekend in May is special, because May is the month when spring is in full flower and folks start thinking about summer.

 So it makes sense that there are a whole lot of special days and celebrations and holidays listed for "the first Saturday of May."
Of course, celebrating in 2020 - while staying at home and staying safe - can be tricky...but whatever we cannot do alone, or at home, we can do or at least learn about online!

 Here are a few "first Saturday in May" holidays:

 Free Comic Book Day - Diamond Comic Distributors has canceled 2020's give-away day because of COVID-19 - or at least postponed it until September. But maybe you'd like to check out this article about why comic books may be good for us...

 Herb Day - This special day normally includes special events at shops that sell herbal products - and those events are canceled in 2020 because of COVID-19. However, growing herbs; enjoying herbs in salads and stews and soups; using herbs in homemade lotions and potions, sachets or other aromatherapy items - all of that is still doable at home. If you don't have access to herbs today, you can do some research for what you want to grow or buy, eventually, and enjoy some other day... Here is a resource you might like.
Ummm...not this year!
Join Hands Day - One thing we generally cannot do, right now, is join hands (don't even touch things that others' hands have touched! - and don't be close enough so that joining hands is even a physical possibility!). However, this day is not really about touching and hands - it's about volunteering. And there are ways to help one another and volunteer, even while social distancing:
This article has a lot of ideas for online
volunteering or other at-a-distance ways
to give...

  • Sew masks to be given away
  • Read picture books on video and send links to your video to your youngest friends and relatives
  • Donate to local organizations that are helping folks in need
  • Send cards and letters of appreciation to medical personnel and first responders, grocery workers and delivery people
  • Buy takeout and/or gift certificates from little mom-and-pop shops and restaurants who need help to stay in business
  • Write and illustrate letters to little kids who don't understand why they can't play at the playground or at their friends' houses...Maybe those letters can be from a fairy or dragon or other imaginary friend?


Learn to Ride a Bike Day - This may or may not be something you can do at home! But be careful - it's not a great time to go to the E.R. with an injury!

 National Fitness Day - Many of us have a lot of extra time and are using it to get more fit. Sit-ups, push-ups, and jumping jacks are familiar exercises - but consider taking freebie zoom dance classes (a friend told me that there have never been so many free classes as now), or zoom yoga or martial arts or aerobics or or or...

 Start Seeing Monarchs Day - Monarch butterflies famously migrate thousands of miles every fall and spring. We can look out our windows and watch for these orange fliers, for sure - and those of us with our own porches or balconies or yards can go outside and watch for monarchs. If you want to participate in monarch research, check out this website.



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February 5 – Western Monarchs in Pismo

Posted on February 5, 2014


Have you ever seen hundreds of thousands of orange butterflies blanketing tall eucalyptus trees? Most of the butterflies look like leaves that barely move in the breeze-sheltered grove, but a few flutter from branch to branch. 

 When I first went to see the migrating monarchs, I saw the few flying butterflies and was dazzled by how many there were. Maybe 100 or so! In nature, when do you see 100 identical-looking butterflies flying around one small area at the same time? I was so excited!

My husband asked me, “You see all the butterflies in the trees, don't you?”

“Of course!” I answered. I was moving my eyes to follow their fluttery flights.

“No,” he said. “I mean, you see all the monarchs that AREN'T moving, don't you? The ones that look like leaves—not the ones flying around?”

And suddenly, just like that, I saw what he was talking about; my brain made sense of what I was seeing—and the flying butterflies became just a bit of background noise. I suddenly saw the thousands and thousands and thousands of still butterflies hanging in each and every tree.

There were so many butterflies clustered in each tree, I couldn't actually see the tree!

I couldn't see the forest for the butterflies!


Monarch butterflies are the only North American butterfly known to migrate south for the winter. Some fly hundreds of miles—some fly 3,000 miles!—to their winter homes. In my home state of California, there are groves of trees that shelter hundreds of thousands of butterflies from around November until February. One of these groves is in Pismo Beach, in Central California, where you can take a walk with docents to see the monarch clusters all through the month of February.




Learn more about monarch butterflies here, and more about their migration here. 








Also on this date:

Sapporo Snow Festival






Plan ahead:

Check out my Pinterest boards for:

And here are my Pinterest boards for:



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March 19, 2010

Swallows Day – Mission San Juan Capistrano, California

They say that every year on this day flocks of cliff swallows arrive at the mission of San Juan Capistrano, California, and begin to rebuild their mud nests. The birds migrate (fly in) from Goya, Corrientes, in Argentina—6,000 miles away!—where they spent the winter.

They say that the swallows arrive in such huge swarms that they fill the sky like rain clouds.


Who are “they”? Mostly the people of San Juan Capistrano. Apparently the birds did appear on or near March 19 for years and years, and the people at the mission (the Spanish friars, at one time, and now the tour guides) would ring the mission bells to welcome them. The people of the town would come outside to watch, and people from all over the world would come to see the natural “miracle” of the birds' return.

The people of San Juan Capistrano created a Swallows Day parade, fiesta, and mercado (street market) to celebrate the coming of the swallows, of spring, and of tourists with their money.

(Actually, this year the Swallows Day parade is happening tomorrow, March 20. It's a Saturday, so it's more convenient, I guess.)

However...

In recent years, there have been very few swallows spotted near the mission at all. Not on March 19, or 20, or 25, or ever. But people still gather. They still have the Swallows Day parade. They still offer goods at the mercado. They still hold a fiesta. And they still hope the swallows will come.

Long ago the city passed laws protecting the birds' nests. Now locals are trying to lure the birds back by installing ceramic nests, playing recorded bird songs, and consulting with specialists. The swallows are, after all, important to the town's self-concept—and its tourism.

I wonder how many swallow-less years people will still gather to celebrate the missing birds? Or will the swallows choose to return?

Did you know...?
  • Mission San Juan Capistrano is the oldest building in California still in use today. It was the seventh mission built in California by Spanish priests, including Padre Junipero Serra, and Indians; construction began in 1776 (the year that the Declaration of Independence was written, far, far away). An earthquake seriously damaged the mission in 1812, collapsing the roof of the 2-story chapel, and it was never fully rebuilt, but perhaps that was part of the reason that the swallows found refuge there for so many years.
  • It's probably no surprise to you that human sprawl all over Southern California may be responsible for the swallows going elsewhere. There really are houses, condos, mini-malls, and parking lots almost everywhere, as far as the eye can see. According to scientists, all bird populations have fallen in this part of the state, not just swallows...Also, scientists point out that migrating birds frequently choose new places to nest (sometimes locations quite close to their old haunts), often in order to be farther from human encroachment and noise.
  • It may surprise to you that birds seem to be getting smaller. Not just the numbers of birds (as explained above), but the size of the individual birds themselves. A study done of almost 200 species over 46 years indicates a tendency for slightly smaller size. One possible explanation is global warming.
Learn more about swallows, including cliff swallows, here. (Note that there are several recordings of cliff swallows to listen to!)

Watch for swallows. If you see some, report your sightings here.

If you like getting your info from comics, try “The Rudiments of Wisdom Encyclopedia.” Author/artist Tim Hunkin points out that swallows sitting on a wire always sit spaced perfectly evenly, and that swallows migrating from Europe to Africa regularly fly through a 4-mile-long tunnel in the Alps, rather than flying over the high mountains...plus more interesting facts! (Note that this author is British, and some words are British spelling.)

Learn more about migration.

  • Some other birds that commonly migrate include ducks, geese, and swans. Plus many seabirds, song birds, and birds of prey.
  • Scientists are studying how birds know when to go, where to go, and so forth. We don't know exactly how birds find their way, but they seem to have an inborn map and to use a combination of cues: the position of the sun, the stars, the earth's magnetic field, perhaps wind direction and ocean sounds, and probably also landmarks.
In a strange but interesting experiment, a bird was carried from its burrow in Wales (Great Britain) to Boston, Massachusetts. There it was released. It took just two weeks for the bird to get back home—crossing 3,000 miles across the Atlantic Ocean, totally unfamiliar territory for this particular bird. That just shows you that some birds are born with some sort of GPS system!
Read this for more interesting migration facts.
  • In the spring, monarch butterflies fly northward (orsometimes eastward) from their wintering homes, as well, sometimes traveling between 200 and 275 miles per day. Unlike birds, the same insects don't make the whole journey. This makes the whole migration “back north” even more amazing—how do the monarchs know where to go, when ALL OF THEM are a different generation than the butterflies who migrated south the fall before?
  • In the spring, California Gray Whales migrate from breeding grounds in Mexico to feeding grounds in Alaska, and Humpback Whales travel the opposite direction, going from Central America (where they bred) to the nutrient-rich waters around Antarctica.

Record Book:
  • Migrating swallows sometimes fly as much as 600 miles in a single day!
  • Arctic Tern – longest migration of any bird – over 14,000 miles (22,000 km)
  • Bar-tailed Godwits – longest non-stop flight – almost 7,000 miles (11,000 km)
NOTE: these birds don't stop to eat! They have to store a lot of body fat before they begin flying!
  • Humpback Whales – longest migration of any mammal – around 5,000 miles (more than 8,000 km)
  • Here is the Brain Pop Junior explanation of migration (with activities!).
  • Kid Zone has a nice, short article about monarch butterflies—with a great photo of a tree covered with masses of the insects, looking like orange autumn leaves! Be sure to try out the jigsaw puzzles and coloring pages (links near bottom of page).
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