Story and Photos by John Sundsmo.
Butterflies come and go in our home hilltop butterfly-friendly California garden. For my wife and me, their short visits, spirit, and short lives are always a gift. The bright colors and lively motion add vibrance and life to our garden. Sometimes a Painted Lady or Monarch wanders in; other times, a white Echo Azure or a brown-and-orange Fiery Skipper; occasionally a Black Swallowtail, Mylitta, or Field Crescent; and this year, an occasional California Orange tortoiseshell. The visits are always brief and somewhat blurred in our memories because of their rarity and their rapid motion, so we really appreciated a travel discovery near Victoria on Vancouver Island in British Columbia, Canada: the Victoria Butterfly Garden. There, we were able to get up close to fully appreciate the amazing butterflies brought in from South America, Southeast Asia, and the Philippines. The experience in Victoria triggered potent memories: a chance encounter years ago with the amazing California Monarch butterfly migration; and a visit to Mexico during Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), when butterfly spirits visit loved ones. The Victoria Butterfly Garden unlocked our gaze, triggering reflection on the values of butterflies’ fortitude, endurance, and fragility. The visit inspired us to update our home garden to better nurture these beautiful, fragile creatures.
Victoria Butterfly Garden: The verdant butterfly greenhouse garden’s tropical setting offered uncrowded beauty, with ample time to linger and reflect on nature’s beauty. The garden included plants from Central America, South Africa, and Southeast Asia, which were greatly enhanced by songs from free-flying tropical birds; the gurgling of a small waterfall stream and pool with brightly colored koi and a log with South American red-footed tortoises; all joined by the antics of a pet flamingo and two beautiful green-winged macaws.
Unlike the limited, occasional butterfly visitors in our home garden, the humidified greenhouse garden provided the perfect temperature and environment for the butterflies. We were amazed by the beauty and variety brought in from all over the world: butterflies from the Philippines, Brazil (blue Morpho aega), Costa Rica (Morpho helenor, Postman Butterfly), Colombia (Yellow-Edge Giant Owl), Indonesia (Goliath Birdwing), and even Southeast Asia.
Unfortunately, my photo finger wasn’t fast enough to capture the flitting, darting wanderings of the most beautiful butterflies, which refused to land for a photograph, especially the beautiful, blue, eye-catching Morpho butterflies from Brazil and Costa Rica. The Yellow-Edged Giant Owl butterfly from Colombia was the most cooperative, posing on brown bark, its brown wings blended in so well that it was barely noticeable.
Fortunately, the gift store in the lobby contained many mounted specimens of the most elusive butterflies, allowing greater appreciation of their coloring and beauty.
A little research taught me that butterfly wings are composed of microscopic scales and hairs that are pigmented in brown, white, black, yellow, orange, blue, green, and red. Evolved over the millennia, some colors are from metabolic pigments or diet, and iridescence is from light bending and reflection by the wing hairs. While Homo sapiens have inhabited the Earth for only about 300,000 years, butterflies have fluttered their appealing beauty around this beautiful, fragile planet for more than 65 million years. In North America, the oldest butterfly is from the Eocene, about 34 million years ago, when the Earth was warmer, greenhouse gas concentrations were twice as high as they are now, sea levels were higher, and Antarctica was a verdant rainforest.
Brilliant wing colors, camouflage, and mimicry evolved over millennia to avoid predators; for us today, it is just joyous beauty. Survivors of several of Earth’s mass extinctions, they are now threatened again, but this time as a direct result of the actions of humankind. Their life cycle depends on the ability of winged adults to lay their eggs on suitable plant foliage for their progeny caterpillars to feed and grow. The caterpillars must pupate in a chrysalis under suitable conditions so that the next generation of butterflies can emerge after metamorphosis. To find the right forage for their caterpillars, butterflies often migrate thousands of miles, sometimes over several generations, to revisit their ancestral homes and lay their eggs in the best possible place. With climate change and the destruction of native plants and habitats, North American butterflies, including Monarch butterflies, are threatened. Overall, butterfly populations in North America have declined by 22% over the past 20 years, and Monarch butterfly populations in California have dropped by 95%.
Our visit to the Victoria Butterfly Garden prompted us to remember our special encounter with the California Monarch butterfly migration in Goleta, California, near Santa Barbara, an encounter that would be difficult to replicate today.
California Monarch Migration: Fifteen years ago, we chanced an encounter with the October Monarch butterfly migration into the eucalyptus groves of Goleta. Butterflies flew in from Arizona, Idaho, Washington state, and Canada. The “super generation” of Monarchs lived 6-9 months and overwintered together on eucalyptus trees, forming dense clusters to stay warm. With California’s Monarch population in decline due to disruptive temperatures, development, wildfires, and increased use of insecticides and pesticides that poison adult butterflies and their larvae, our experience would be difficult to replicate today. These beautiful creatures are essential pollinators for some native plants, moving pollen over great distances, and their demise has been likened to the ‘canaries in the coal mine’ signaling the collapse of some California native ecosystems.
Reflecting on the decline of Monarch butterflies in California, we were inspired by our experience at the beautiful Victoria Butterfly Garden to seek ways to improve our garden’s Monarch-friendliness so we could sustain their fragile beauty and support their role as pollinators maintaining the balance in nature. We have enjoyed their company and hoped our efforts could help them survive, so we visited a neighborhood butterfly garden to see what we might learn.
Local neighborhood butterfly garden: A short walk took us to the Nevin neighborhood butterfly garden planted by homeowners along the shores of Corte Madera Creek north of San Francisco. Here, we noted their success in attracting Monarchs to milkweed in their small garden.
Thinking, ‘if they can do it, so can we’, we set off to visit a native plant nursery. Finding the Native Plant Nursery in Tamalpais Valley, on Highway 1 in Mill Valley, California, we purchased a young milkweed plant. Hopefully, in the next few years, it will flourish, grow, and flower so we can attract and sustain some of these very special Monarch visitors in our home garden.
Butterfly Spirits in Gardens: Our discovery of the Victoria Butterfly Garden was a gift, especially because it evoked reflection and inspired us. We recalled that during a visit to Mexico on Día de los Muertos (Day of the Dead), butterfly spirits, believed to be the souls of the dearly departed, return to visit their loved ones. Migrating thousands of miles, they are a vivid symbol of fortitude, endurance, and hope. If they are the souls of our dearly departed, we thank you for reminding us of those dear, beautiful lives. The butterflies’ short lives are a vivid reminder of our own fleeting time on earth. As we ponder our souls’ journey, their fragile beauty, fortitude, endurance, and survival are worthy of reflection.
IF YOU GO:
For images of California Butterflies, see the Naturalist site at Butterflies of California: https://www.inaturalist.org/check_lists/10675-Butterflies-of-California
This is the link for the Victoria Butterfly Garden: (https://butterflygardens.com/)
Monarch Migration: The California State Parks has a website for the Pismo State Beach Monarch Butterfly Grove that describes the monarch migration to coastal California. (https://www.parks.ca.gov/?page_id=30273 ) Other coastal locations favored by Monarch overwintering include Pismo Beach, Santa Cruz, Pacific Grove, and locations along Highway 1 north of Cambria. For more websites and viewing locations, see Visit California (https://www.visitcalifornia.com/experience/heres-where-see-californias-monarch-butterflies-right-now/ )
San Diego: If you can’t make it to Victoria any time soon, the San Diego Zoo Safari Park (formerly The Wild Animal Park) opens a special butterfly encounter, “Butterfly Jungle”, in its aviary each year in March-April, so you can check their website for dates next year ( https://sdzsafaripark.org/butterfly-jungle ).
Leave a Reply