Monarch butterflies start amazing journey

MILANVILLE — Naturalist Ed Wesely will present a fascinating program on the life cycle of the Monarch butterfly at the Butterfly Barn Nature Center in Milanville, on Saturday, Aug. 23 at 10 a.m. The program is free and open to the public. Observe live butterflies in each stage of their life-cycle. Release mature butterflies into the winds that carry them thousands of miles to their Mexican wintering grounds. Peer through a microscope at a caterpillar egg, listen to a caterpillar munch along a leaf, and follow the migratory journey that Monarchs take. Learn how to tag Monarch butterflies so their 2,200-mile autumn migration from the Delaware Valley to the mountains of central Mexico can help scientists study their decreasing populations. One of the butterflies that was tagged at the Butterfly Barn was actually found in Mexico a few years ago, and Wesely has a certificate to prove it. Each year Ed Wesely and Barbara Yeaman of the Butterfly Barn Nature Center rescue hundreds of Monarch eggs and caterpillars from threatened milkweed colonies. Milkweed, a unique habitat and food source for Monarch caterpillars, is on the decrease in the North, and forests are being cut down in the butterflies’ winter habitat in Mexico, as well. Learning how to protect this increasingly rare species is something you can do right here in your own backyard. For more information or to join the Butterfly Barn’s monarch network, log on to www.butterflybarn.org or contact the program sponsor, the Delaware Highlands Conservancy, at 570-226-3164 or by email at info@delawarehighlands.org.