Ease into your week with a moment of calm, enjoying the simple flapping of the wings of the Gulf fritillary butterfly on a zinnia.
This butterfly was once an orange spiky-backed caterpillar that lived on the passionflower plant. Gulf fritillary butterflies, identifiable by their brilliant orange color and three white dots on each wing, are currently abundant here locally as we await the exciting annual migration from Canada to Mexico of the monarch butterflies.
Monarchs need milkweed (as host plants) for their trip north, and nectar for their trip south. Click here for lots of info about creating an effective monarch waystation. If you have a flowering garden, you're pretty set for the fall, but if you don't have milkweed in your garden, add that to the spring "to do" list.
Here is the peak of monarch abundance for the following North American latitudes (thanks to www.monarchwatch.org). Don't know your latitude? Me neither! Google your city, state and the word "latitude" or click here for a list of U.S. cities and their coordinates.
Latitude Monarch Migration Dates
49 August 18-30
47 August 24-September 5
45 August 29-September 10
43 September 3-September 15
41 September 8-September 20
39 September 14-September 26
37 September 19-October 1
35 September 25-October 6
33 September 29-October 11
31 October 4-October 16
29 October 10-October 22
27 October 15-October 27
25 October 20-November 1
23 October 27-November 8
21 November 3-November 15
19 November 10-November 22
Okay, Atlanta is at about the 33rd latitude, and that means the monarchs should be here right . . . about . . . NOW, with a peak abundance on October 7.
What an exciting week this will be! Stay tuned!
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3 comments:
We also have monarch butterflies here at this time of the year. Evidently they can drift on the wind half way around the world, thousands of feet up in the air. So yours may have been to our place!
Danget, I missed them! I'll be sure to look more closely next year. What a handy little monarch calendar that is. I would suspect it's the same every year, yes?
Not sure if it has changed because of fluctuations in world weather. Interesting question.
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