![]() They also have stamina: “Two hundred miles in a day is common,” he says. He notes that some monarchs have been clocked flying at 15 miles per hour in still air. In early spring, the butterflies will migrate back to their cooler homes in the Sierra Nevada.īeigle lists a few facts about the migrating monarch that elicit gasps from the small crowd of people gathered around him. Most monarchs fly to the coast from the foothills of the Sierra Nevada mountains on the border between California and Nevada. Beigle says that the butterflies have traveled to Pacific Grove from 100 to 1,000 miles north and east of Pacific Grove. ![]() The monarch butterflies have chosen this small swath of land in Pacific Grove for its mix of moderate temperature, humidity, and shelter from the wind. As brightly colored monarchs float from the sky like confetti, Beigle explains the insects’ amazing journey. The butterflies will stay along the coast from November through February. “They can’t fly if their temperature gets below 55 degrees.” Warmer winter temperatures bring monarch butterflies to almost 200 overwintering sites on the California coast, including Pacific Grove’s Monarch Grove Sanctuary, Santa Cruz’s Natural Bridges State Park, and the state’s largest site for vacationing butterflies, the Pismo Beach Monarch Grove. Nearby, several butterflies float up into the sky. But then a breeze causes the monarch butterflies to flutter their wings-revealing a blast of bright orange color. Above the tree trunks is a congregation of what at first appear to be clumps of dead leaves. “They look like dead leaves in a U-shape,” he says, as he points a spotting scope towards the trees. A volunteer butterfly docent for the Pacific Grove Museum of Natural History, Jack Beigle helps human visitors spot the monarchs clustered on a stand of nearby eucalyptus trees. Currently, past a sign announcing “Caution: Butterfly Zone” and adjacent to the Butterfly Grove Inn, the Monarch Grove Sanctuary is hosting approximately 1,000 monarch butterflies that have arrived early to spend their winter in this 2.4-acre site. Calling itself “Butterfly Town, USA,” the small community on California’s Monterey Peninsula has already held its annual Butterfly Parade, where local schoolchildren dress up like the insect. It’s early November, and Pacific Grove is preparing for thousands of visitors.
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