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Catching some rays |
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Just over the hill from Silicon Valley lies the small town of Santa Cruz. In addition to its many other attribues, the proximity to the Pacific Ocean and temperate climate make Santa Cruz an attractive spot for the Monarch butterfly to spend the winter. It would seem, in fact, that Natural Bridges State Beach is the Miami Beach for Monarchs escaping northern-state winters.
Except this year.
Turns out that the (relatively) cold, wet weather of the past few weeks scared off the little critters, and there wasn't a Monarch to be seen at Natural Bridges. Fortunately, a small grove of eucalyptus trees a couple of miles south provided just enough protection for a vew Monarch cognoscenti to hang out, and that's where I took these photos.
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Profile |
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Monarchs have a fascinating life story. They can't survive the cold of northern climates, so they migrate to roosting places further south. Those west of the Mississippi travel to wooded groves along the Pacific coast of California, and those east of the Mississippi travel further, to the high mountains of Mexico. The only generation of Monarchs that lives longer than a couple of months is the cohort that migrate, and they survive all the way from late summer and early fall to the following spring. They mate in spring, and it is their great-grandchildren who return south the following year. Nobody knows how the migrating generation finds its way to the same grove, even the same tree.
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