Monarch Butterflies Arrive in Alberta

Four photos in one to show you the movement of butterfy wings. But not just any butterfly – this is a Monarch Butterfly! And it is in my garden! (Forgive all the exclamation marks, but I don’t think I have ever seen a Monarch butterfly in my yard before).

My very own Monarch Butterfly spent much of the morning  sucking up the nectar of the Pink Painted Daisies.

There is nothing in a caterpillar that tells you it’s going to be a butterfly.
– Richard Buckminster Fuller –

Women, don’t get a tattoo. That butterfly looks great on your breast when you’re twenty or thirty, but when you get to seventy, it stretches into a condor.
– Billy Elmer –

A list of ‘Remarkable Feats of Navigation’ has to include the migration of these Monarch Butterflies.

Perhaps the Monarch in my yard found some milkweed and laid eggs, or maybe it was one of the many monarch butterflies that flew all the way from Canada to a winter home in Mexico – a journey of several thousand miles. Once in Mexico, Monarchs breed, lay eggs and eventually die. Three or four more generations of Monarchs come and go before another Monarch reaches Canada the following summer.

The Flutter Files
Scientific Name: Danaus plexippus
Alias: Monarch Butterfly
Migration: In Summer from as far north as Southern Canada to wintering grounds in Southern California or Mexico.
Date Seen: July 6, 2012
Location: North of Calgary, Alberta, Canada