A lone Monarch butterfly rests on an aging shard of driftwood half buried in the white sands of Carmel beach; it’s early October. This lone Monarch is a harbinger of the start of the Monarch butterfly overwintering in the Monterrey Bay area of north central coastal California. Thousands of Monarchs will arrive within the next several weeks to spend their winter patiently waiting for the first rays of the spring sun to usher in their next generation. Thus the western population of Monarchs play out the legacy of their greater numbers making up the Eastern and Central North American populations who undertake even a greater and more dangerous journey from the Southern Canadian Great Lakes region to the Oyamel forests of the north central Mexican Sierras.
Monarch on Driftwood Carmel CA
