GreenWatch

B. McPherson Let's make sure future generations have a chance to witness this. For many N. Americans the return of the monarch butterflies is a sure sign that summer is here. These special butterflies with their cheery black and orange coloring are unique in their migratory habits. Because the monarchs are vulnerable to cold, they fly south in the autumn to winter in Mexico and California. They gather in the thousands in trees and enter a state of reduced metabolic activity, living on their fat reserves. The epic journey of the monarchs is under siege.   In both the eastern and western populations, butterfly counts have plummeted in California and Mexico. The November 1997 count in California was 1,250,000 per site. In 2009 there was an average of 1250 at each site. In There are several factors that are thought to have affected the numbers. Lack of Food Monarch butterflies’ life cycle includes a caterpillar stage. The caterpillar must feed on milkweed plants or d...

B. McPherson Snowy owls are visiting from the Arctic. Snowy owls have been  spotted on Vancouver Island and points south. This has the bird watchers all aflutter as these beautiful birds belong in the Arctic. They are adapted for life on the tundra with their thick feather coats and their white spotted camouflage. I haven’t seen any of the interlopers as of yet, but they have appeared during the day and in unexpected places. Vancouver Island is mostly snow free through the winter and trees are abundant. This seems to confuse the birds as they are not used to trees. They have even been sighted perching on the railings of the ferry that plies between the mainland and the island. This is the second year that snowies have been showing up this far south. Last year large numbers flew south across the continent. It was surmised that they were looking for food. There had been a couple of good years for the lemming population in the Arctic and the snowies benefitted from an...