Migrating Monarchs Rest at Riga Home

Terry Beaver welcomes a group of colorful and fluttering guests last week.

Nestled in Riga’s corn fields, Beaver’s Gust Road home features silver maple trees, fruit trees, dozens of varieties of flowers, and a water garden. Migrating monarch butterflies, on a journey most won’t survive, have decided to make Beaver’s yard a rest stop on the way from Canada to Mexico.

It all started Aug. 28 and lasted a couple of days.

“I was over here water some plants and noticing there were more than the normal number of monarchs fluttering around in the air. I thought, ‘well, there are a lot of milk weeds in the yard. They probably had a hatch,’” said Beaver, a retired science teacher.

But then as he continued watering, more butterflies flocked to his yard.

“I thought, this is not a hatch, this is something else. By the time a half an hour went by, you could see them swirling up in the sky, chasing each other in big groups of two or three dozen, and they were all headed toward this big maple tree over here,” Beaver said.

So he walked to the tree and was astonished at what he saw.

“There were probably four branches with two dozen or more on each branch. On the other side there were branches just covered with these monarchs with their wings closed, hanging upside-down,” Beaver said. “Then I knew this was not a hatch. This was a migration.”

In the late summer and early fall, monarchs emerge from their pupae and prepare for their flight from the Great Lakes region to the forested mountains of Mexico. The migration is driven by seasonal changes. Monarchs are cold-blooded and can not fly in the cold. According to the website www.monarchwatch, no other butterflies in the world migrate like the monarchs of North America. They make the 3,000 mile trek, flying in masses to the exame winter roosts, often to the exact same tree, according to the website.

“Unlike birds and whales, individuals only make the round-trip once. It is their children’s grandchildren that return south in the following fall,” the website reports.

How they know the route is one of many mysteries surrounding the colorful creatures, who are well known for their beauty. They typically measure about three inches from wingtip to wingtip. The four wings are colored a yellow, orange or cold, reminiscent of the colors of the sunset. The wings feature black veins running through them. A black band, speckled with white spots, rings the wings, creating an effect which would make a stained glass artist jealous.

After the first visit, Beaver called out friends to view the phenomenon,

“This is great. This is great,” said Beaver, as a group of people, from young children to senior citizens, armed with flashlights and cameras searched  the yard for butterflies last Monday night. “I like this because I am science teacher and I’ve never really seen this up close like this before.”

Beaver guessed that the monarchs stopped at his yard because of his flowers. He joked that he had “one of everything” in his garden.      

“We have milkweeds, which they like to lay their eggs on. I have butterfly bushes and butterfly  weeds. There is a trumpet vine and a garden flock,” said Beaver. “They can probably smell this yard as they are flying by, and they nectar is attracting them.”

Beaver said it takes two or three generations to make a round trip to Mexico and back.

“It’s like a space flight to another galaxy. One generation leaves, they die in transport, and their children continue the journey and the family, they get there,” Beaver said.

Beaver said he hoped the guests would make his yard a regular rest stop on their migration.

“It’s been a great couple days. What a treat,” he said.