On my recent trip to California to photograph Bobcats (see my last column) I had a chance to fulfill a lifelong dream of seeing and photographing clusters of wintering monarch butterflies. We had checked a couple of known spots in northern California close to where I was working but wasn’t able to locate any wintering butterflies. So my partner and I decided that a 5 hour drive to central California would be worth it to see some wintering monarchs.

Five hours and lots of traffic jams later, we arrived just at sunset at a location where thousands of Monarch Butterflies normally spend the winter. Not knowing what to expect we grabbed our binoculars and started walking and search around for the butterflies. It didn’t look very promising. After all, the population of Monarch Butterflies has decreased dramatically over the past 20 years. For example according to Monarch Watch, a nonprofit education, conservation and research group, in 1995 there were over 390.5 million wintering monarchs. The latest population numbers in 2015 show only 56.5 million monarchs. 2014 recorded the all time lowest population of monarchs at 33.5 million. This isn’t encouraging news.  

Just when we thought all our efforts were not going to pay off we saw a small handmade sign on a post that said, “Not seeing any butterflies? Look Up”. There, about 30 feet above our heads, was a large cluster of monarchs. Through our binoculars (not enough light to photograph) we could see hundreds and hundreds of monarchs, with their delicate wings folded over their backs clinging to the branches of the eucalypts trees. Honestly they looked just like the leaves on the trees and in the dim light they were hard to see.

For those who don’t know, the Monarch Butterfly is our only truly migratory insect. Of the hundreds of butterfly species in North America, it’s the only one that migrates. There are a few other butterflies that do partial migration but none like the monarch. All of the monarchs east of the Rocky Mountains migrate to the mountains of central Mexico. This is where the vast majority of monarchs spend the winter. A much smaller population of monarchs west of the Rockies migrate to California for the winter. This is where I am at.

There are about a dozen or so spots along the California coast that play host to these amazing insects. Instinctively they gather in large groups during winter. At other times of the year the monarchs are solitary. One by one the monarchs start to arrive in November and by December thousands are hanging from the branches of trees. They spend the winter clinging together and on warm days go out to feed on the nectar from flowers. Not all of them venture out during the day but the ones that do will return to the same trees at night. At the end of February the butterflies start to leave the wintering sites and fly off northward to mate, lay eggs and will unfortunately die. This is why the wintering monarchs are so important. They are the sole reason why the monarch population carries on from year to year.

The next morning at sunrise we returned to the monarch site with cameras in hand and spent several amazing hours filming these awesome insects and thus fulfilling a lifelong dream to see and film wintering monarchs. Until next time…

Stan Tekiela is an author/naturalist and wildlife photographer who travels the US to study and photography wildlife. He can be followed on www.facebook.com and www.twitter.com. He can be contacted via his web page at www.naturesmart.com.