Monarch Butterflies and Migrations

Monarch Caterpillar Becoming a Chrysalis 

I’ve had three inspiring butterfly experiences during this past month.  The first was while with my wife, observing the hatching of a dozen butterflies in the memory care unit where she resides.  Seeing the transformation of crawling caterpillars into mummified cocoons, and then the emergence of delicate butterflies with wings and the ability to fly, is to witness an incredible miracle which is beyond our comprehension or ability to understand or explain.

Monarch Emerging from a Chrysalis

Monarch Butterfly I Found

Between watching the butterflies hatch and their eventual release, the second event occurred.  While walking one morning to assist Kristie, I saw a Monarch butterfly lying along the sidewalk, but left it because I had nothing with me to carry it carefully.  I actually forgot about the butterfly and was surprised to see it again in the evening after helping Kristie to bed.  I gently put the butterfly in my baseball cap and brought it home.  It is astonishing to me that this Monarch butterfly was in such pristine condition and had remained in the same location all day despite gusting winds, numerous people passing by, and possible predators.

Photo While Walking Mackinac Bridge

It was the third experience, however, which fascinates and intrigues me most.  On Labor Day I walked the mighty Mackinac suspension bridge which is 5-miles long and rises 200 feet above the waters of Lakes Michigan and Huron.  Actually, I only walked half of the 5-miles and then returned the way I came.  On my return trip and while standing under the 552-foot south tower, I happened to look up and was flabbergasted to see a butterfly about ten feet above me in the air flying across the bridge.  I estimate the south tower to be about 3 miles from the north shore and two miles to the south shore.  It is stunning, almost inconceivable, that something as tiny and delicate as a butterfly could, and would, fly across such a vast body of water while encountering wind gusts of 15-miles an hour or more.

I am not certain whether what I saw was a Monarch butterfly, but I have talked to people who have seen them in swarms as they migrate over land along Lake Michigan; and this is the time of year for Monarchs to travel through northern Michigan, as they fly 3,000 miles to hibernate central Mexico. 

Kristie Neilson as a Kindergarten Student in Pacific Grove, CA

Sixty-four years ago, my wife began kindergarten at the Lighthouse Elementary School which was right across the street from the Pacific Grove, California Monarch Butterfly Sanctuary, where the Monarch butterflies west of the Rocky Mountains return each fall.  She was one of the kindergarten students who led the annual Butterfly Parade during the first week of October 1955.

I love the 4-minute video below "Migration: A Yearning for Home" and its message that we as humans are on a migration as we seek our heavenly home.  This becomes very poignant for me as I consider Kristie's journey through life, and deem her Alzheimer's and eventual passing as a chrysalis phase, prior to being resurrected, as she ultimately emerges to make her way to her eternal home. 

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Addition information regarding the development stages and yearly 4-generation migration of Monarch butterflies is available at https://www.monarch-butterfly.com/; where I copied the top two pictures.