MONARCH BUTTERFLIES
FROM:
Izzy Sommers, MD[retired]
7-140 Elmview Street, West
Welland, ON L3C 4K7, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-788-2237
EMAIL: canadizzy@yahoo.ca
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 2005
TO:
The Editor
The Welland Tribune
228 East Main Street
Welland, ON L3B 5P5, Canada
EMAIL: tribune@wellandtribune.ca
RE: monarch butterflies...
Dear Editor,
Reuters reported that Mexico sees bigger butterfly migration. Phew! Last year the cold weather apparently resulted in the lowest numbers in more than a decade. This year greater than usual numbers are expected because of the warmer than usual summer in Canada. It turns out that three or four generations of Monarch Butterflies are required to fly the distance from Mexico to Canada. The last generation, apparently, has a longer life span and is able to return all the way from Canada to the butterfly sanctuaries in Mexico. The natives support these inasmuch as they draw tourists and their money. So far, the natives haven’t succumbed to the temptations of the lucrative timber trade and the butterflies have a safe home.
Here in Ontario, it would be great if the Monarch Butterfly population increases. Outdoors, I think I’ve only seen two in the last two years in Ontario. One was on Merritt Island in Welland, and the other was in Welland Canal Park in Port Colborne, at the two ends of the bicycle path along the Welland Canal between Welland and Port. Indoors, there's hundreds in the Butterfly Conservatory on Niagara Parkway, beside the Horticultural College, between Niagara Falls and Queenston. Sixty years ago, when I was a youngster, I was virtually knee deep in Monarch Butterflies. The gorgeous, flying, fluttering insects and the pretty, crawling, fuzzy, black and orange caterpillars were as much a part of my upbringing as frogs, toads and garter snakes. Mother nature’s bounty of beauty might return the les Papillons et die Zwitterlinks und the millions of black and orange butterflies to southern Ontario. I hope so.
I hope the frogs and toads and garter snakes come back, too... The French snails and the Zebra mollusks need some competition.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers, Welland, Canada
Izzy Sommers, MD[retired]
7-140 Elmview Street, West
Welland, ON L3C 4K7, Canada
TELEPHONE: 905-788-2237
EMAIL: canadizzy@yahoo.ca
DATE: Sunday, November 20, 2005
TO:
The Editor
The Welland Tribune
228 East Main Street
Welland, ON L3B 5P5, Canada
EMAIL: tribune@wellandtribune.ca
RE: monarch butterflies...
Dear Editor,
Reuters reported that Mexico sees bigger butterfly migration. Phew! Last year the cold weather apparently resulted in the lowest numbers in more than a decade. This year greater than usual numbers are expected because of the warmer than usual summer in Canada. It turns out that three or four generations of Monarch Butterflies are required to fly the distance from Mexico to Canada. The last generation, apparently, has a longer life span and is able to return all the way from Canada to the butterfly sanctuaries in Mexico. The natives support these inasmuch as they draw tourists and their money. So far, the natives haven’t succumbed to the temptations of the lucrative timber trade and the butterflies have a safe home.
Here in Ontario, it would be great if the Monarch Butterfly population increases. Outdoors, I think I’ve only seen two in the last two years in Ontario. One was on Merritt Island in Welland, and the other was in Welland Canal Park in Port Colborne, at the two ends of the bicycle path along the Welland Canal between Welland and Port. Indoors, there's hundreds in the Butterfly Conservatory on Niagara Parkway, beside the Horticultural College, between Niagara Falls and Queenston. Sixty years ago, when I was a youngster, I was virtually knee deep in Monarch Butterflies. The gorgeous, flying, fluttering insects and the pretty, crawling, fuzzy, black and orange caterpillars were as much a part of my upbringing as frogs, toads and garter snakes. Mother nature’s bounty of beauty might return the les Papillons et die Zwitterlinks und the millions of black and orange butterflies to southern Ontario. I hope so.
I hope the frogs and toads and garter snakes come back, too... The French snails and the Zebra mollusks need some competition.
Thank you for listening.
Sincerely,
Izzy Sommers, Welland, Canada
posted by izzy sommers at 12:18 AM
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