Monarchs
Created | Updated Dec 7, 2006
The sun had not long risen and a cool, blustering
wind blew off the land but on the Boardwalk, in the
lee of the Beaches, walking was comfortable. Clear
skies gave the promise of a fine day. Few people
were about and a flock of five migrating Dunlin
probed along the shoreline of Lake Ontario, undis-
turbed by free-running dogs.
For a while nothing else caught my eye until I
noticed that a migration of another sort was taking
place. It was about 9am and at any one time I could
see 5 or 6 Monarch butterflies heading west along
the shore in that erratic flight so typical of the
lepidoptera. I stopped several times to count them
and found that 8 to 10 were passing by me every
minute at a height of between 1 and 3 metres above
the sand. Weather-wise and conscious of saving
energy, they had chosen the lee of the lakeshore
where they could make headway under the turbulence
that boiled off the land.
The great migration of raptors had also begun
but there would be no gyring in the high thermals
for frail papillon. Bent to the same direction,
his erratic flutterings and purposeful glides, made
his westing a lot harder.
It was noon before I made the return journey
along the Boardwalk and by then, it was crowded,
people taking the sun and many dressed in light
gear despite the cool air, wistful for the days of
summer. ‘Few tourists now.’ I thought and suddenly
the people vanished as again I became aware of the
migration of the butterflies.
The warmth had brought both people and Monarchs
out in large numbers and my butterfly count was soon
up to about 20 per minute which was about 1200 per
hour which peak lasting perhaps for four hours would
factor out at roughly 10,000 per day or 70,000 per
week. Conditions were ripe for an accurate count
and I suspected, that given an offshore wind, there
could be no better place in the Toronto area for
such a count to take place.
The exodus continued, the butterflies flaunting
their tickets in the face of the unseeing crowd,
ecstatic vacationers on their way to a winter in
Mexico.
wind blew off the land but on the Boardwalk, in the
lee of the Beaches, walking was comfortable. Clear
skies gave the promise of a fine day. Few people
were about and a flock of five migrating Dunlin
probed along the shoreline of Lake Ontario, undis-
turbed by free-running dogs.
For a while nothing else caught my eye until I
noticed that a migration of another sort was taking
place. It was about 9am and at any one time I could
see 5 or 6 Monarch butterflies heading west along
the shore in that erratic flight so typical of the
lepidoptera. I stopped several times to count them
and found that 8 to 10 were passing by me every
minute at a height of between 1 and 3 metres above
the sand. Weather-wise and conscious of saving
energy, they had chosen the lee of the lakeshore
where they could make headway under the turbulence
that boiled off the land.
The great migration of raptors had also begun
but there would be no gyring in the high thermals
for frail papillon. Bent to the same direction,
his erratic flutterings and purposeful glides, made
his westing a lot harder.
It was noon before I made the return journey
along the Boardwalk and by then, it was crowded,
people taking the sun and many dressed in light
gear despite the cool air, wistful for the days of
summer. ‘Few tourists now.’ I thought and suddenly
the people vanished as again I became aware of the
migration of the butterflies.
The warmth had brought both people and Monarchs
out in large numbers and my butterfly count was soon
up to about 20 per minute which was about 1200 per
hour which peak lasting perhaps for four hours would
factor out at roughly 10,000 per day or 70,000 per
week. Conditions were ripe for an accurate count
and I suspected, that given an offshore wind, there
could be no better place in the Toronto area for
such a count to take place.
The exodus continued, the butterflies flaunting
their tickets in the face of the unseeing crowd,
ecstatic vacationers on their way to a winter in
Mexico.
